Changing Family Size in England and Wales
Place, Class and Demography, 1891–1911

An analysis of the decline of infant mortality and fertility in Britain, 1891–1911.

Eilidh Garrett (Author), Alice Reid (Author), Kevin Schürer (Author), Simon Szreter (Author)

9780521801539, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 July 2001

554 pages, 16 maps 80 tables
23.5 x 16.1 x 3.9 cm, 0.98 kg

'… should become required reading for anyone with an interest in population history. We must be grateful to Garrett et al. for increasing our knowledge of the demographic transition in England and Wales.' Chris Galley, Barnsley College

This volume is an important study in demographic history. It draws on the individual returns from the 1891, 1901 and 1911 censuses of England and Wales, to which Garrett, Reid, Schürer and Szreter were permitted access ahead of scheduled release dates. Using the responses of the inhabitants of thirteen communities to the special questions included in the 1911 'fertility' census, they consider the interactions between the social, economic and physical environments in which people lived and their family-building experience and behaviour. Techniques and approaches based in demography, history and geography enable the authors to re-examine the declines in infant mortality and marital fertility which occurred at the turn of the twentieth century. Comparisons are drawn within and between white-collar, agricultural and industrial communities, and the analyses, conducted at both local and national level, lead to conclusions which challenge both contemporary and current orthodoxies.

Preface and Acknowledgements
1. Introduction
2. Locations for study
3. Studying locations
4. Infant and child mortality from the 1911 census
5. Fertility and fertility behaviour 1891–1911
6. The national picture
7. Class, place and demography: the mosaic of demographic change in England and Wales from Waterloo to the Great War
Appendices
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Population & demography [JHBD], Social & cultural history [HBTB], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]