Children have therefore become an economic liability band a drain on parental resources because the parents have to support their children through compulsory education and often post 16, therefore parents tend to limit their family size so that they are able to secure a higher standard of living for themselves and their family, also the move to a more child-centred society has assisted in this restriction of family size, as smaller families mean parents can spend more money and time on each child. A geographical mobile labour force may of been an encouraging factor for smaller families, because they can easily pack up and move elsewhere to where there is more work available.
The changing role of women within society has involved more equal status with men and greater employment opportunities. Today women have a greater desire to pursue a career rather than conceiving and caring from children. Eventually most women have children however in 1989 20% of women were childless compared to the 12% of women a decade before. The trend in childless women can be expected to continue whilst women care more for the career opportunities.
Due to the decline in Infant Mortality Rate and also the overall death rate has meant that fewer people are dying before they reach adulthood and old age, resulting in a decrease in need for children for security. Also the range of agencies available to help the elderly mean that the child of an elderly person feels less compelled to look after them but also the elderly are becoming less reliant on them.
The rising costs of caring for children also may actually “put off” couples from having children, according to Pregnancy and Birth magazine in 2001 that parents spend at least £20,315 in their child's first five years of life and a further £53,413 between the ages of six and 16. And for parents who both work, childcare adds another £7,000 a year. Some couple just simply don’t have enough money to support this expenditure.
Changing values in society is another reason for the decreasing birth rate, Parenthood involves great pressure on couples, mainly to stay together, it involves a lifelong commitments and a loss of freedom. In this postmodern age, costumer values dominate, and people develop their identities through material goods and leisure choices, and children mean a cut on money to pay for important things for them, this makes couples more reluctant to have children.
However, even though there seems to be a decline in the birth rate since the 1990s there has been 2 ‘baby booms’ that are widely recognised, The from 1946 to 1964, the from 1980 to 1999, these were the children of the post-WWII baby boomers.
The death rate is the number of deaths per thousand per year within a population. The reasons for a decline in the death rate as because there was a better understanding of health care after the 1900s this includes better nutrition, better knowledge of illnesses, better medical treatments, environmental and health measures by the government, for example better housing, ventilation, cleaner drinking water and cleaner air. Also there were not as many dangerous jobs available like mining. As a result of this life expectancy went up in the 1900s, however, life expectancy was low in the 1900s due to a high infant mortality.
Kat Quantrill...
Kat Quantrill...1207...Mrs Stewart... January 2009...
