Examine the main trends in birth and deaths since 1900(24 marks)
Sociologists use the idea of birth rates to measure how many births have been occurring. It is usually described as the number of live births per 1000 of the population per year. The trend highlights that the birth rate since 1900 has been fluctuating. In addition the fertility rates have decreased as well.
From 1918 to 1946 birth rates in the U.K. fell significantly. An explanation to support why this occurred is because of World War 1 and 2. During this time period, many men had left their wives to join the war. This lead to a decrease in births as males were not present in their home country. This occurred in many countries not just Britain. Britain became more female orientated. This especially occurred in the more urban areas.
The reason birth rates started to increased after 1950 was through the introduction of the NHS. This service, because it was free helped to save many lives. Births increased as more men were being treated and also the wars had ended therefore decreased the death rates heavily. Furthermore the TB vaccination was also brought in 1953. Tuberculosis was a very dreadful disease to catch, killing 2,200,500 people approximately before the 1950's. After that the deaths reduced dramatically to 600,000 since the vaccination.
In the 60's the death rates increased. This was because of the diseases of affluence. This term describes diseases and health conditions thought to be a result of increasing wealth. The height of these deaths peaked at 0.65 million. This reason of deaths co-exists with the reason that many workers have taken up more increasingly dangerous jobs. These jobs aided in increasing the death rates. The majority of the work was manual labour because Britain was an industrial country in the 80's. The workforce was no longer skilled enough to take up administrative