Examine the main trends in births and deaths in the UK since 1900.

• Other causes of decrease in birth rate are that women who now also have other opportunities such as legal equality with men with the right to vote especially laws outlawing unequal pay and sex discrimination act means that women now see other possibilities aside from being a housewife and mother leading to a decrease in birth rate.

• The decline in birth rate are caused by factors such as the changes in position of women, more women are working than before and are also on the contraceptive pill and it is much easier to divorce than before. This therefore means that women are postponing having children leading to a decrease in birth rate. Also women can now abort their child but they also have educational opportunities.

• The decline in infant mortality rate measures the number of infants who die before their first birthday per thousand babies born alive per year. Some sociologists say that a fall in IMR leads to a fall in birth rates however others disagree. This is because if many infants die parents have more children to replace than those that they have lost therefore increasing the birth rate.

The reason for the decline in death rate of 1900 is:

• In 1900 the IMR for the UK was 154,these figures are higher than those in less than developed countries today.  The UK’s IMR began to fall, and this was due to improved housing and better sanitation such as cleaner water so there less chance of being susceptible to infection. Other factors such as better nutrition and knowledge about health but also the health services were rapidly improving. This meant that people were living longer since they weren’t as susceptible to infections or illnesses; this was another cause for a decrease in IMR.

• During the mid 20th century sociologists were curious as to why there was such a change in IMR and some thought that it was because of the medical factors such as immunization being introduced but many sociologists claim that the falling IMR led to a fall in birth rates. This is because if many infants die, parents have more children to replace those they have lost and infants have survived, parents will have fewer of them.

• The effect that immunization had was that now less people were dieing due to infections. Others reject this view An example would be Brass and Kabir who argued that the trend to smaller families began not in rural areas where the IMR began to fall but in urban areas where the IMR remained higher for longer.

• Another factor would be that children have become and economic liability such as the laws which meant children would be dependent on their parents for longer and the norms which meant parents had to provide for their children in terms of material that the cost of bringing up children has risen. Therefore children are the ‘Centre’ of society today. As a result of these factors, the effect on birth rates and fertility rates have fallen over the last century but since 2001 there has been a slight increase and this is because of immigration and people coming into the country. This is another factor that causes population increase aside from births.

• In the uk the overall number of death rates has remained fairly stable but there has been a decline in the death rate as according to N.L Tranter (1996) over ¾ of the decline in death rate from about 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria, smallpox, diarrhea, typhoid and TB etc. This decline in deaths may have been because of these illnesses however some may have developed resistance to these or could have been social reason such as improved nutrition, which Thomas McKeon (1972) argues that improved nutrition mounted up for over half the decline of death rates.

• Other factors such as medical improvement meant that hospitals now had immunization and better maternity services so these would lower the death rates but also public health measure and environmental improvements meant that there was purer water and better ventilation but also improved sewage disposal methods therefore this meant that death rates would also increase as infections were less spread.
• Other causes of decrease of birth rates could have been due to higher incomes and better knowledge of the diseases. Furthermore class and gender differences was also taken into account as if your were from a greater back round/ class it was assumed you would live longer and If you were a female then you would also live longer compared to your male partner.
• Also other social measures lead the death rate to a decline such as decline of more dangerous manual occupations liking mining and with smaller families this reduced transmission of infection.

• Furthermore this meant that the life expectancy had increased but taking this all into consideration, the ageing population was now affected as well as the dependency ratio which meant that adults were liver up to much longer and for each pensioner there had to be a worker who would work for this and since this was now increasing the dependency ratio was also increasing too. One main cause of this could be that improved health services therefore people are living to an older age and not dying early.

• In conclusion the birth rates and total fertility rates have declined but there have been fluctuations on the past but the death rates have also declined which means more people are now living much longer hence the life expectancy has increased. Overall the main causes of increased populations are births and immigration but factors causing decrease in population are because of deaths and emigration.