How the family has evolved over the last century
With the arrival of a new baby you may feel that your finances are stretched to the limit, but your money goes a lot further now than at the beginning of the 20th century. There have been many dramatic changes in the UK: the population has expanded and is more ethnically diverse, people live longer and in smaller households, and education has improved dramatically. Below, we explore some of the changes over the last century:
Households and families Nowadays, 40 per cent of births are outside marriage, although most are to couples who live together. Seven per cent of households have a lone parent with dependent children and only 23 per cent of households are the classic family made up of a couple and their children. Eight per cent of families are stepfamilies with dependent children. Marriage and fertility Fertility has increased too, with 40 live births per 1,000 women aged 35-39 years in 1998. From 25-29 is the most common age to have a baby, followed by 30-34 years, 20-24 years, 35-39 years, under 20 years and finally, 40 and over. IVF was widely introduced in 1978 and now 16.4 per cent of treatments result in a baby. However, there is also an increasing number of women who are remaining childless. About 16 per cent of women born in 1923 were childless by age 45, falling to 11 per cent for women born in 1943, and increasing to 16 per cent for women born in 1953. The projection is that 23 per cent of women born in 1973 will be childless at the age of 45 years. Population The population is ageing, too. In 1901 only one person in 20 was aged 65 years and over, by 1998 this was one in six. There’s a much greater chance of your baby living to 100 – in 1951 there were less than 300 centenarians, but by 1996 there were 5,500. Education and employment It might make you feel old, but your children will inevitably be more computer-literate than you. By 1999, 93 per cent of secondary schools and 62 per cent of primary schools were hooked up to the internet. The chances of your little bright spark going to university and beyond have increased as well - nearly six times as many students enroll to postgraduate level now as they did in 1970. Employment has changed dramatically. In 1901, 10 per cent of 10-14 year old boys were working and nearly 40 per cent of men aged 75 years of over were still in work. Another new development is the rise of two-income families, with more than 60 per cent of couples with dependent children having both partners in work, compared to around 50 per cent in 1979. And in the early 1900s married women were reliant on their husbands for money as they were unlikely to have a job themselves. Nor could they vote. Flexible working is also on the rise nowadays. By spring 1999, around 24 per cent of female and 15 per cent of male full-time employees were working flexible working patterns. Balanced against that, though – men work an average of 45.7 hours a week and women work 40.7 hours a week in the workplace. Income and expenditure Television, video and audio have become increasingly important to us all, with nearly £8 per week spent on such items by the average household, compared to £2 per week in the 1960s. And we’re using more and more credit – in 1991 we spent £2 billion on credit cards and in 1998 we spent £4.8 billion. Health and social issues On average people eat more than 700g of fruit a week and just 28 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women were smokers in 1998 compared to 52 per cent of men and 42 per cent of women in 1972. We’re playing a waiting game though – at the end of March 1999 there were 1.1 million patients in England waiting for NHS treatment as an in-patient or day care, although around three-quarters of those had been waiting under six months. If you do have to stay in hospital, the average stay has fallen from just over eight days in 1981 to around five days in 1997-8. Although homebirths are starting to regain popularity, one in three births in England and Wales was at home in 1960 compared to just one in 50 in 1997. Most antenatal contacts (69 per cent) took place in the community in 1998, up from 51 per cent the year before. Childcare is definitely on the increase, there were more than 300,000 places in day nurseries in England and Wales in 1998 compared to just 60,000 in 1987. Housing and lifestyle The number of houses with a home computer almost doubled between 1988 and 1998, from 18 per cent to 34 per cent. In the early 20th century, people travelled around by foot, tram or train – there were only a few cars and very few overseas holidays. Today, 70 per cent of households have at least one car and holidays abroad every year. The world is growing ever smaller as the internet, air/space travel, the media continue to develop. The life your child leads will be incredibly different to that of her grandparents, and even her parents! Where to next?
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Following the success of C4's 1900 House, we examine how family life has changed
from the beginning to end of the 20th
century...
