Secondly children have become an economic liability. This has changed from the late 19th century because children were economic assets to their parents because they could be sent out to work from an early age and earn an income for the family. However, since then the role of children has changed. For example there are laws banning child labour, there has become compulsory schooling and raising the school leaving age which means that they will be more economically dependent on their parents for a longer period. Furthermore the changing norms bout what a child have a right to expect from their parents in material terms means that the cost of bringing up a child has risen. As a result of this the children are becoming more and more expensive to care for leading for smaller families and childless couples.
Thirdly the society has become more child centeredness. This causes childhood to become more socially constructed as a uniquely important period in the individual’s life. In terms of family size, this has encouraged smaller families so the parents can pay more attention of the few children they have compared to many.
In addition to the child centeredness, the family itself is a cause of the decline in the birth rate. This is because better off couples may be able to have larger families and still afford childcare that allows them both to work full-time, whilst some couples who are not as well off are unable to have a large family and pay for childcare and work full-time. This is a factor causing the decline.
The number of deaths has remained fairly stable since 1900, at round about 600000 per year, although the number of deaths was out of a much smaller population than today. However there have been some important fluctuations. Foe example the two world wars brought a rise in the number of deaths, while the influenza epidemic of 1918 brought deaths to a record level of 690000. However the death rate has fallen since 1900. The death rate is the number of deaths per thousand of the population per year. In 1900 death rate was 19 and in 2007 it is 10.
There are a number of reasons for the decline in the death rates. According to N.L Tranter (1996), over three-quarters of the decline in the death rate from about 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as influenza, measles, smallpox, diarrhoea, and other diseases. Since deaths from infectious disease where commonest in the young, it is not surprising that most of the decline in death rate occurred among infants, children and young adults. By the 1950s the diseases such as heart diseases and cancer had replaced infectious diseases as the main cause of death. These degenerative diseases affected the middle aged and old more than the young.
Thomas McKeown (1972) argues that improved nutrition accounted for up to half the reduction in death rates and was particularly in reducing the number of deaths from TB. Better nutrition increased resistance to infections and increased the survival chances of those who did become infected.
Secondly medical improvements are another factor which is the cause of a decline in death rate. Before the 1950s, despite some important innovations, medical improvements played almost no part in the infection of deaths from infectious diseases. However, after the 1950s improved medical knowledge, techniques and organisations did help to reduce death rates. Advances include the introduction of antibiotics, widespread immunisation, blood transfusions and the introduction of the NHS.
Thirdly the government in the 20th century improved the public health services and the quality of the environment. These included improvement in housing, purer drinking water, laws to combat the adulteration of food and drink, along with other change.
Finally other social changes were made within the 20th century of the decline in manual jobs such as mining. Also smaller families reduced the rate of transmission of infections. Furthermore the education of the population upon illnesses and causes.
Also the life expectancy has increase from 50 years old in 1900 to 77 in 2005 for male and for female 57 in 1900 to 81 in 2005. This is another reason for the decline in the death rates from 1900 to 2007.
The trends from the evidence I have gathered so that the birth rate and the death rate are declining. This will cause an ageing population where there will be a lower number of under 16 and an increase of 65 and over
