Demographic Trends in Mordern Britain - Research Paper Example

Demographic trends in the modern England. Introduction. Demography can be defined as the statistical study of all population s .It is a general science applied to any dynamic population that which changes over a period of time. Demography comprises the study of size, structure and distribution of the given population of study. It studies also temporal changes in relation to birth, migration, aging and death. Demographic analysis is mostly applied to societies or a given population using criteria such as education, age, religion and ethnicity to name but a few. Demography is studied as a branch of anthropology economics and sociology. Formal demography is limited to measurement of population processes while a broader study of social demography studies and analysis the relationship between economic social cultural and biological processes that have effect to a population. Demographics is a term mainly used to refer characteristic of a selected population mainly in by the government and in fields like marketing, opinion research among others. In 1800 England had none of this instead there was civil registration of births, marriages and burials attempted under common wealth. At the time the main source of information on demography was as a result of by parish registration of baptism, marriages, and births that occurred in parish churches. The paper tries to focus on various demographic trends that have been experienced in the modern England. These demographic trends have their effect on the social economic aspects of life. The changes focused on include, the marriage setup from the past to the present time .It tries to examine the changes that have occurred for example change s in the age of marriage, divorce rates ,childbearing age among others. It also seeks to find out what has caused the changes that have been evidenced in the present days for example why people are delaying to engage in marriage, why there is a higher rate of divorce cases among others. The paper also examine to which direction these trends are heading and why. The paper also examines the trends that have occurred on the job market over the past years. It focuses on the level of unemployment and its effects to the society. It also tries to answer why there has been an increasing unemployment especially to the young people and what trends a re likely to follow thereafter. Employment. There has been a general upward trend of unemployment in England since the year 1970 which has been as a result of three recessions that occurred during 1973,1981 and the year 190.In 1980s unemployment tripled compared to 1971 whereas the number of available vacancies for employment remained the same .The unemployment can be connected to the shift in the fundamental policy of economies attributed to Mrs. Thatcher conservative government in the year 1979.Controllling of inflation was made paramount during 1980s and unemployment was on rise as a result. This perception of inflation and unemployment has been questioned by many. It is argued that other measures can be put to check inflation while reducing the level of unemployment (Ermisch, 1998). In the present days it's also difficult for young people to secure employment t in the job market. During the mid 1997 the 20 to 24 years age group, more than 12 percent of them are unable to secure employment .The situation is worse for the 16 to 19 years age group where more than 17 percent of them are unemployed .This implies that more than 20 percent of this groups of people live under welfare support . Most of this young people are not able to get even trainee positions and thus many end up in engaging in hooliganism behavior and crime (Heath, 1994). Unemployment in the united kingdom can be termed as one of the European success stories from the year 1993 where it stood at 10.3 percent and came down to 5.3 percent in the year 2002.The benefit has been employment where the working population has risen in every year .Moreover all sexes and ages have participated in this change of the employment trend (Ermisch, 1998). The UK population has fallen in tremendously as compared to other developed countries, this fall is estimated to be below the replacement levels .This is likely to cause a work force issue compared to its counter parts in Central and Eastern Europe .This exposes it to four work force risks and change in the employment trends employment . The ratio of young people to old people in the work force is estimated to be 1:4 employers are there fore exposed to both age and retirement age risk .Age risk can be seen as potential loss of productivity related to age of an older worker. Retirement risk is the potential loss of a worker due to his or her retirement age where it is observed that 26 percent of the population is above the age of 50.Therefore this provides employers with a challenge to counter the effects of productivity due to advancement of age of their work force and retirement. The trend may result to employment problems as where there is shortage of employees in particular clusters (Drew, 1998). Moreover generation friction is another effect of this demographic trend, this situation that comes about as a result of varying behaviors, lifestyle, and culture of different age groups or generation categories. This disparities results to friction in the work force as the new workers are not ready to embrace the ways of the old generation, the older generation also find s it s difficult to accept the new lifestyle and way of doing things popular to the young generation. This dramatic difference brings difficulties in coordination of the workforce towards a common goal. Young people are therefore repelled to work in industries where they feel they do not fit Causing unemployment in various sectors .Age friction is a trend that leads to stereotyping of working in some areas by the youth and causes them to be more selective of employments available. It is estimated that that the portion of entry and mid level positions are likely to go un staffed in the forth coming years because of a low percentage of workers between the age of 16 and 34 years of age. Vacancy risk can be seen as a variable of labor supply and demand to occupy the potential open position s that may go unstaffed.The vacancy risk exposes companies to risks which involve s labor supply and demand which may lead them to poach workers in order to counter competition.This can lead may also lead to shortage of employees required in various clusters (Heath, 1994). Marriage. The overall population in the UK has steadily increased over the last few years .This can be attributed to many factors and changes that have been and are still occurring .Different demographic structures ,cultural traditions and economic variables in the great Britain determine the distinct patterns and size of families (Ermisch, 1998). In modern Britain marriage has become less of economic importance to women, this is because they are now able to undertake paid work outside their households compared to the past. This means that they can be able to material independence and form separate house holds .The attitude towards marriage has also greatly changed in the recent years with choices regarding couples becoming more extensive. This has resulted to fewer people getting married, The changing nature in marriage rate can be highlighted by the sharp decline of first time marriages for both men and women between the year 1990 and the year 2000.This can be seen as a result of the changes in the society have had more effect on women as opposed to especially independence caused by increased participation in the labor markets (Drew, 1998). Besides the decrease of the people marrying people who marry are also marrying late compared to the past years. The mean age of marriage in 1990 was 27.2 but has increased to30.1 in the year 2000. Women increased participation has made it postponement of marriage and child bearing a common trend in order to acquire more education and establish their career. Economic insecurity has elevated the need to prolong education and training for both men and women in order for them to acquire secure themselves for future employment (Heath, 1994). Economic independence in women has also led to high rates of people divorcing, over the last four decades, economic independence makes it easy for women to establish separate households after break ups .Individualization and privatization of marriage has been argued to trigger high expectations of personal happiness and self fulfillment. .Stigmatization associated has been decreasing as more divorce cases are evidenced The 1969 Divorce Reform Act which was effected in 1971 made a great impact in increasing the divorce rate. It meant that one person would not necessarily bring charges against the other for the divorce to be granted making divorce easier by removing the guilt and punishment associated with it. However divorce rates have stabilize in recent years due to decline in marriage rate and prevalence of cohabitation though the rate remains high compared to past years and the European standards. The high rates of can be seen to perpetuate the low number of marriages occurring as women and men try to sustain their workforce positions and career for future financial security (Ermisch, 1998). Summary Through out the years many change s have been experienced, the only thing that does not change is change and thus we are bound to experience change each day that goes by. The changes affect either the economic, political and social aspects of life across a society. The trend s that occur may there fore manifest themselves in a positive or negative note for example unemployment may lead to lowered living standards while technological advancement may lead to easier and more effective ways of doing things and accomplishing tasks. The great challenge that faces the society is its ability to cope with change or dynamism assuring that it's beneficial to it. In the modern England demographic trends and changes are evident in every aspect of life (Drew, 1998). Conclusion. It has been observed that there has been increased rate of divorce cases and a sharp decline in childbirth across the population. This is attributed to inclusion of women in the job market and safeguard of career among men and women. The issue may be addressed through making of a secure sustainable economy that will offer security even to married partners. Campaigns towards changing attitude of divorce practices should be availed where the underlying causes of divorce should be addressed. They law should also not be very lenient to grant divorce to couples until the situation is considered intolerable. People should be given incentives to have children and the government should come up with a child support system to encourage couples to bear children. The government should create more employment opportunities to young people to reduce the rate of unemployment .Sustainable economy with job security should be put in place, other measures to check inflation should be improvised with an aim to retain employment during economic hardship periods. Employers should consider employing people of all age groups to ensure all levels are well covered and no gaps are left. Employment should be emphasized on a continuous basis. References Drew, E. (1998), 'Re-conceptualising Families' in Drew, E, Emerek, R and Mahon, E, eds (1998) Women, Work and the Family in Europe Routledge, London. Ermisch, J. (1996), 'The Economic Environment for Family Formation'; in Coleman, D. (ed.) (1996) Europe's Population in the 1990s, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Heath, S. and Dales, A. (1994), 'Household and family formation in Great Britain: The ethnic dimension', Population Trends. Read More