Reasons for the Decline in Family Size in Modern Britain
Average family size in Britain, measured by the typical number of children born to a woman, has fallen considerably since the nineteenth century, and sociologists identify several linked reasons for this decline.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- List the main explanations clearly before writing full sentences: contraception, women's education/employment, declining infant mortality, the changing economic value of children, and state welfare/pensions.
- For each factor, explain the mechanism, not just name it, stating exactly how the factor reduces family size rather than simply naming the factor.
- Distinguish factors that give people the ABILITY to have fewer children, such as contraception, from factors that give people a REASON to want fewer children, such as the cost of raising children, the opportunity cost of women's careers, or the declining need for children as future carers.
- Link this topic to changing gender roles: as more opportunities opened up for women in education and paid work, the cost in lost income and career progress of having several children rose.
- For an 'explain two reasons' question, choose two factors from different categories, one enabling, one motivating, so the two points are clearly distinct rather than overlapping.
- Avoid stating specific average family-size figures or exact modern birth-rate statistics; describe the trend, family size has fallen, and its causes without inventing numbers.
Worked example
Explain two reasons why average family size in Britain has declined since the nineteenth century.
- Choose two clearly distinct reasons, one enabling and one motivating, to avoid repetition.
- State the enabling reason: reliable, widely available contraception has given couples much greater control over whether and when to have children, compared with couples in the past.
- Add detail: this means family size increasingly reflects a deliberate choice rather than being largely determined by chance.
- State the motivating reason: declining infant and child mortality, due to improvements in healthcare and public health, has reduced the need for parents to have several children to ensure that some survive to adulthood.
- Add detail: in the past, high infant mortality meant families often had more children than they intended to raise to adulthood, partly as a way of increasing the chance that some would survive.
- Conclude: together, greater control over reproduction and a reduced practical need for large families help explain the long-term decline in family size.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Give one method that has given couples greater control over family size.Show answer
Answer: Reliable, widely available contraception.
Q2What is meant by the 'opportunity cost' of having children, in relation to women's employment?Show answer
Answer: The income or career progress a woman gives up by spending time raising children rather than in paid work.
Q3How has declining infant mortality affected family size?Show answer
Answer: It has reduced the need for parents to have many children to ensure that some survive to adulthood, since more children now survive from a smaller number of births.
Q4How has the introduction of state pensions affected family size?Show answer
Answer: It has reduced the need for parents to rely on their adult children to support them financially in old age, removing one traditional reason for having several children.
Q5Give one way children have become more 'child-centred' and costly to raise in modern Britain.Show answer
Answer: For example, longer periods spent in full-time education rather than paid work, or higher expectations for the money and time invested in each child.
Q6State one factor, other than contraception, that has given women greater control over the timing of having children.Show answer
Answer: Access to further and higher education and career opportunities, which many women choose to pursue before starting a family.
Q7Explain briefly why the shift from children being an economic asset to an economic cost affects family size.Show answer
Answer: If children add costs, education, housing, time, rather than extra household income, as in the past when children could work, parents have less economic incentive to have large families.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two reasons for the decline in family size in modern Britain.
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'Changes in the position of women are the most important reason for the decline in family size.' Discuss this view.
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See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
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