UK Social Trend Analysis

Recent trends have been observed that UK has seen important developments across many aspects of society. Like the birth-rate has been declining and so economic strategy now focuses on ensuring that a high proportion of working-age people are engaged in the workforce. Moreover, Lifelong learning has become an important part of the strategy to achieve this goal.

According to a report if we take a look on four decades of social reporting in the UK is the underlying theme of this year's Social Trends as it celebrates its 40th year in 2010. And to mark this anniversary, Social Trends is publishing the population, household and families, labour market, and housing chapters online earlier than usual. In this first wave, these four chapters highlight some of the main demographic changes over the last 40 years.

According to a research the UK population has grown steadily and is now over 60 million people. The country has also seen substantial migration in recent years, particularly from the European accession states. There has been a fall in the number of people under 16, and the UK’s population is ageing due to past trends in births, deaths and migrations. However, the fertility rate has increased in the past few years.

Few Population facts

· Total number of people living in the UK has increased from 55.9 million in 1971 to 60.6 million in 2006.

· Total number of people aged 65 and over in the UK is expected to exceed the number aged under 16 in 2021.

Infact size and age structure of the population is essential in understanding aspects of society, such as the labour market and household composition. And over the 40 years period the composition of the labour market has been changing: employment and unemployment rates have fluctuated, reflecting changes in the economic cycle. Additionally, there have also been some notable changes in people's living situations: from who they live with, to the type of homes they live in.

Actually there has been tremendous change in the social trends in the last 20 years. And communication channels have been increased. Many people have become more independent. Mostly living standards have improved a lot in the past 20 years. Moreover, technological uplift has led to convergence of society as a whole. Mostly people have now become more materialistic and family values and ethics have diminished considerably.

Moreover, income plays an important role in people’s social wellbeing, determining how much they have to spend on the goods and services that make up their material standard of living. Between 1971 and 2005 in the UK, GDP per head more than doubled in real terms.

Basically the UK has been focusing on poverty-reduction. And since 1997 the government has lifted 2.4 million people out of relative poverty, including 800,000 children and a million pensioners.

Few Income and wealth facts

· Between 2004 and 2005, UK household disposable income grew by 1.4 per cent in real terms, while GDP per head grew by 1.2 per cent.

· In 2005, the UK had the third highest GDP per head within the G7, whereas in 1991 it was lowest in the group.

· Household net wealth in the UK more than doubled in real terms between 1987 and 2006.