Birth rates (no. of live births per 1000 people per year)

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  • Birth rates (no. of live births per 1000 people per year)
    • Impact
      • The family- better-off couples may have larger families and still afford childcare allowing both to do full-time work. Smaller families- women more likely to work- dual earner couple
      • Dependency ratio- fewer babies= fewer young adult workers= higher ratio? But fewer children= less burden on the working population
      • Public services and policies- fewer schools and maternity and child health services, and smaller classes. May also impact on costs of ma/paternity leave and types of housing needed
    • Why?
      • Child-centredness- childhood's socially constructed as a uniquely important time, encouraging a shift from quantity to quality, lavishing more attention and resources on fewer children
      • Changes in women's position mean they see their lives beyond being housewives and mothers, so they delay or refuse childbearing
      • From the 19th century onwards, child labour was banned, compulsory education introduced, school leaving age increased (children became dependent for longer) and it became the norm that children should expect greater rights (more financial investment). Children, therefore, are no longer economic assets, so parents are less willing to have a large family
      • Decline in infant mortality rate means fewer 'replacement babies' (due to improved housing and sanitation, medical services, nutrition and hygiene knowledge). The rate in 1900 UK was 154/1000, compared to 144/1000 in Liberia, 2003
    • What's happening?
      • Slight increase in births since 2001 due to immigrant mums having higher fertility rates- 22% of all births in 2005
      • Long-term decline ( except after the 2 world wars where servicemen and wives were reunited, and the 70's baby boom)
      • Total fertility rate- 2.95 kids per woman in 1964, compared to 1.63 in 2001 and 1.84 in 2006
      • Birth rates: 28.7 in 1900, 10.7 in 2007

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