A-Level Sociology: demography and the family

Demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900 form one of the content areas of the Families and Households option in A-level Sociology (for example, AQA A-level Sociology 7192, Paper 2): birth rates, death rates, family size, life expectancy, the ageing population, and migration and globalisation. Questions on this area expect you to handle the measures correctly, explain the trends sociologically and link them to changes in family life.

The quiz starts with the measures themselves, separating the birth rate from the total fertility rate, and uses current figures from the Office for National Statistics: a fertility rate of 1.41 children per woman in England and Wales in 2024, the lowest on record, against a peak of 2.93 in 1964, and an infant mortality rate of 3.9 per 1,000 live births in 2023, against about 154 in 1900. You then explain why families have become smaller (children changing from an economic asset to a liability, falling infant mortality, the changing position of women and the rising age of mothers) and why the death rate fell, including McKeown's argument about nutrition.

Further questions show why life expectancy at birth in 1900 does not mean most people died in middle age, identify the causes of the ageing population recorded in the 2021 Census, and ask you to calculate a dependency ratio from invented figures. You compare Phillipson's Marxist view of old age with postmodern and policy-based views, recognise Brannen's beanpole family, explain why young migrants slow population ageing, and apply Cohen's distinction between citizens, denizens and helots.

Every quiz question has one defensible answer, and each explanation adds the sociological reasoning or evaluation that a longer answer would need.

The material offers four formats. The 12-question quiz explains each answer. The 16-card flashcard deck covers the measures and key concepts, from replacement-level fertility to the feminisation of migration. The printable written work sets eight open questions, from explaining a single trend to assessing the consequences of an ageing population, with ruled space for handwritten answers that are then checked. The oral exam puts you in front of an examiner who asks one question at a time, follows up on your reasoning and gives brief feedback at the end.

Use it to get the definitions and figures right and to connect population change with changes in the family, such as smaller and later families, beanpole structures and the care of older relatives.

• Define and distinguish the birth rate, total fertility rate, death rate, infant mortality rate and life expectancy
• Explain the long-term fall in births and family size and the rising age of mothers
• Explain the fall in the death rate, including McKeown's argument, and interpret life expectancy figures correctly
• Explain the causes and consequences of an ageing population and calculate a dependency ratio
• Compare Marxist, postmodern and policy perspectives on old age and explain the beanpole family
• Explain the effects of migration on the population and apply Cohen's typology of migrants

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Families and Households option of A-level Sociology specifications (for example AQA A-level Sociology 7192, specification version 1.2, section 4.2.2: demographic trends in the United Kingdom since 1900). Figures: ONS Births in England and Wales 2024 (refreshed populations, August 2025); ONS How is the fertility rate changing in England and Wales (October 2024); ONS Child and infant mortality in England and Wales 2023; ONS National life tables, UK, 2021 to 2023; Census 2021; infant mortality in 1900 from historical Registrar General data.