Although these factors have been proven by sociologists to have caused a decline in birth rates, there has been a slight increase since 2001 due to immigration, as mothers from outside the UK have a higher fertility rate.
Another reason for the decline in the birth rate is that women are now more independent and focusing on pursuing a career rather than having children and starting a family. This is mainly due to more educational opportunities open to women. Sue Sharpe carried out research in the 1970s which supported this view. She interviewed working class children, and found that the vast majority of them valued marriage and a family more than they valued a career. In 1994 she replicated this study and found that their views were opposing the views that the girls had in the 1970s.
However there have been fluctuations in births, with three 'baby booms' in the 20th century. The first two came after the two world wars (1914-18 and 1939-1945) as returning servicemen and their partners started families that they had postponed during the war years. There was the third baby boom in the 1960s, after which the birth rate fell sharply during the 1970s. The rate rose during the 1980s, before falling again after the early 1990s, with a recent increase since 2001.
In the UK, the overall number of deaths has remained fairly stable since 1900, at approximately 600,000 per year, although of course in 1900 this number of deaths was out of a much smaller proportion than today.
Reasons for the decline in the death rate during the 20th century are due to the two world wars, the influenza epidemic and other diseases.
According to N.L. Tranter (1996), over three-quarters of the decline in the death rate from 1850 to 1970 was due to a fall in the number of deaths from infectious diseases such as diphtheria, influenza, scarlet fever, measles, smallpox, diarrhoea, typhoid and above all tuberculosis. The main reason for the decline in deaths from infection is due to the increase in medical treatment and technological advances.
Other reasons include improved nutrition, public health measures, environmental improvements and other social changes including greater public knowledge of the causes of illness.
Both the birth and death rate in the UK since 1900 have been on a long term decline for several reasons, but mainly due to the position of women and advances in medical treatment.
