Social rates

DENSITY. DISTRIBUTION

With over 57 mln people the UK claims the 14^th place in the world as to its population. Since 1801 until 1991 censuses of the people of the UK have been taken regularly every 10 years (excepting 1941). In 1901 the British population was 38,2 mln, at the end of the 17^th century it was about 6,5 mln and only 2 mln at the end of the llth century. The growth of the population was most rapid from the middle of the 18^th century to the end of the 19^th when the average number of live-born children per married couple amounted to 6-7.

Britain has always been a densely populated country. According to the latest full census taken in 1991 the population density in Britain is 234 per sq. km. Britain is the third in Europe (after Netherlands (Holland) — 360 per sq. km and Belgium — 325). And the world's extremes are: Hong Kong — 5436 people per sq. km and Botswana — 2 per sq. km.

Though density in Britain is very high, the country is populated very unevenly. England is the most thickly peopled part, its density is 361. The second is Wales with 135 per sq. km, then Northern Ireland — 110. Scotland is one of the most sparsely populated areas in Europe. There one can motor for hours without seeing another person. The density per square km in Scotland is 65 people. Densities of more than 500 people are only found in the main industrial areas (such as the Midlands and south-east England), the density of Greater London being 4238 people per sq. km. There are eight major metropolitan areas known as «conurbations» which accommodate a third of Great Britain's people while comprising less than 3 per cent of the total land area. They are: Greater London, Central Clydeside, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne and Wear, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Most of the mountainous part, including much of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the central Pennines, are very sparsely populated.

As in many other developed countries the recent trend shows a movement of people away from the main conurbations (particularly their centres) to the surrounding suburbs.

In the 60s there was a marked tendency for earlier marriages: young people married in their late teens or early 20. The trend of the 60s towards earlier marriages was reversed at the beginning of the 70s. Since then there has been a slow increase in the average age for first marriages, which in England and Wales is now just over 26 for men and 24 for women.

Britain has one of the highest divorce rates in Western Europe. The European average is 6,9 per thousand.

The divorce rate in Britain has been increasing steadily, in 1988 to 129 for every 1000 married couple in England and Wales, while in 1961 it was only 2. Nowadays one in almost every two marriages ends in divorce. The rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland are much lower.

The image of the traditional British household of the 50s with 3-4 children in a family has changed. Nowadays, only 7% of British families consist of 5 or more people. The average British couple today has only 1,8 children. 36% of the married couples have no children, 25% have children, 27% are one-member families (widows or divorced men), 9% — are lone parent families with children. The great majority of singe parents are women. There has also been a sharp rise in the rate of illegitimacy. More than a quarter of babies were born outside marriage — «non-marital» babies.

Another feature of the present British family, common to many other Western European countries, has been a considerable increase in cohabitation. 18% of unmarried people aged between 16-59 are leaving with someone without being officially married. In Britain you can get married in a church or in a registry office.

As in many other developed countries, the fertility rate (63 births per 1000 women of childbearing age) is low compared with past rates and it remains below the level required for the long-term replacement of the population. Such factors as later marriages, postponement of childbirth, effective contraception, voluntary sterilization of men and women has contributed to the relatively low birth rate.

Birth rate tendencies have brought noticeable changes in the age distribution. There is a marked decline in the proportion of young people under 16 and an increase in the proportion of elderly people especially those aged 85 and over.

In the period 1971-81 the number of infants (0-4 age-group) fell by 12 per cent, while those aged 65 or over increased by 34 per cent. Primary school enrolment in 1986 was 26 per cent lower than in 1971. The British population is already one of the oldest in Europe, and it is slowly getting older.

Sex distribution is also different. There are nearly 106 female to every 100 males in average in Britain. Total births of boys naturally exceed those of girls by about 6%. But boy babies on an average are more delicate and difficult to rear than girls. So stillbirth and mortality rates at almost all ages are higher for males. Because of their higher mortality there is a turning point at about 50 years of age, at which the number of women exceeds the number of men. This imbalance increases with age, among elderly over 70 year old there are 18 women to every 10 men.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-26