How have changes in birth rates, death rates, migration and the age structure reshaped families?
Demographic trends in the UK since 1900, including changes in birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, the ageing population and migration, and their effects on family and household structure.
A focused answer to the AQA A-Level Sociology Families topic on demography, covering changes in birth and death rates, family size, life expectancy, the ageing population, migration and globalisation, and their effects on family structure.
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What this dot point is asking
AQA wants you to describe and explain UK demographic trends since 1900 (birth rate, death rate, family size, life expectancy, the ageing population and migration) and explain their effects on family and household structure. The exam rewards precise vocabulary (birth rate versus fertility rate, dependency ratio) and clear cause-effect links.
Birth rate and family size
The birth rate (live births per 1000 of the population per year) has fallen since 1900, with sharp dips and a post-war "baby boom" along the way. Reasons include:
- Changes in the position of women (Harper): education, careers and control over fertility mean women delay or limit childbearing.
- Decline in the infant mortality rate (IMR): when fewer babies die, families no longer need many children to ensure some survive, so the birth rate falls (the IMR fell first, helping cause the birth-rate fall).
- Children becoming an economic liability: the cost of childrearing, child labour laws and compulsory schooling turned children from economic assets into expensive dependants.
- Better contraception and changing values, with parents wanting fewer, more "invested-in" children (child-centredness).
The total fertility rate (TFR, average births per woman) and average family size have therefore declined, which is distinct from the birth rate.
Death rate, life expectancy and the ageing population
The death rate (deaths per 1000 of the population per year) has fallen due to better nutrition (McKeown argued this was the main factor), public health and sanitation (clean water, sewerage, housing standards), medical improvements (immunisation, antibiotics, the NHS), higher living standards and a smaller proportion of dangerous manual work. Life expectancy has risen sharply (someone born in 1900 could expect a far shorter life than someone born today).
Effects of the ageing population include more one-person pensioner households, the feminisation of later life (women live longer, so more older women live alone), the beanpole family (vertically extended across three or four generations but narrow, with few children per generation), and a pivot (sandwich) generation caring for both their children and their elderly parents.
Migration and globalisation
Migration (immigration, emigration and the resulting net migration) reshapes the population. Globalisation has increased the scale, speed and diversity of migration, creating a more multicultural and ethnically diverse population. Vertovec describes "super-diversity", a far wider range of countries of origin, legal statuses and cultures than before. Migration affects family forms (transnational families, where members live in different countries), the age structure (migrants are often of working age, slowing population ageing) and the size of the working-age population.
Evaluation
Demographic change does not happen in isolation: it interacts with policy and economy. An ageing population fuels debates about pensions, healthcare and care work (which often falls on women in the family), while migration affects both the workforce and family diversity. The trends are explained by social changes (the position of women, public health) as much as by government policy, and they reshape rather than simply respond to family life.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of AQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AQA 201910 marksOutline and explain two effects of an ageing population on family life.Show worked answer →
Two developed paragraphs, no item.
Effect one: the rise of the beanpole family and the pivot generation. Longer lives produce more multi-generational, vertically extended (but narrow) families; the middle "pivot" or "sandwich" generation cares for both children and elderly parents.
Effect two: more one-person pensioner households and a feminisation of later life. As people live longer (women longer than men), more older people, especially women, live alone, raising questions about care, dependency and the family's caring role.
Markers reward two developed effects, ideally with a named concept (dependency ratio, beanpole family).
AQA 202110 marksOutline and explain two reasons for the decline in the UK death rate since 1900.Show worked answer →
Two developed paragraphs, no item.
Reason one: improved nutrition and public health. McKeown argued better nutrition accounted for much of the fall in deaths, especially from infectious disease, alongside public health measures (clean water, sewerage, housing regulation) that reduced waterborne and infectious illness.
Reason two: medical and lifestyle improvements. Twentieth-century medicine (antibiotics, immunisation, the NHS), plus a smaller share of dangerous manual work and changing behaviour (less smoking), further cut deaths and raised life expectancy.
Markers reward two distinct, developed reasons.
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Sources & how we know this
- AQA A-level Sociology (7192) specification — AQA (2015)