Introduction
Sociology: AQA A Level, topic 4.5.1
Demographic Terminology
Demography refers to the study of human populations. The following section looks at demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900.
Demography
- Demography refers to the study of human populations; information governments need about population to plan social policies (number of schools need, present and future demands on housing and health services etc.).
- The main factors that influence the size of a country’s population are births, deaths, immigration (the number of people entering the country for a period of at least one year) and the emigration (the number leaving the country for at least one year).
Natural population change
- Natural population change refers to changes due to births and deaths.
- More births than deaths result in a natural increase in population size.
- More deaths than births result in a natural decrease in population size.
UK trends
- Since 1900, most of the growth in the UK population has been due to natural increases, in that there have been more births than deaths and the life expectancy has increased.