Changing Patterns of Family Life: Child-Bearing

Introduction

- According to the ONS, there were 657,000 live births in the United Kingdom in 2018 (this was a 9.9% decrease since 2012 and the lowest since 2005).

- 51.6% of those births were to married couples, which is the biggest decrease since 1973.

- Fertility rates decreased in all age groups, except for women aged 40 years and over, in 2018.

Reasons for the Decrease in Child-Bearing

- Changing roles of women in society.

- Improved contraception.

- Delaying child-bearing.

- Costs of child-bearing.

Changing Roles of Women

- Women are becoming more involved in Higher Education and delaying marriage and children until later in life.

- Career aspirations of women have led to a decrease in fertility rates of all women under the age of 40, this suggests that women are waiting longer to have children.

- Increased career aspirations means women are less likely to have larger families as they want to…