Who are the men and women who are single in their mid-30s? This study, which uses life history data for a British cohort born in 1946, shows that an important minority are ‘handicapped’ and these adults are cared for primarily by their families, in particular by elderly parents. Celibates tend to be more introverted, ambitious and to have older marrying parents than their ever-married peers. Single women differ from single men. The women are more likely to be of higher ability, to be graduates and to be in high status occupations whilst single men are more likely to be members of the lowest social class or unemployed. The great majority of single people live either with their parents or on their own.

The conventional belief since the publication of the Black Report is that social inequalities in health have been increasing since 1931–32 although it has been argued that the measure of inequality used is inappropriate. All analyses have been based on mortality rates which, in large part, reflect inequalities in health over the previous 50 years and not current trends. This paper argues that time trends should be assessed with a current health status measure and suggests using height at age 20 as a good measure of the achieved health status of a group. Analysis of a government survey shows that inequalities have stayed the same since 1940, both for men classified by their own occupation and for women classified by their father's occupation.

A quantitative review of the literature on the intellectual achievement of only children indicated that only children were never at a disadvantage in relation to any comparison group; nor were they significantly different from first-born children or children from two-child families. Moreover, only children were at a significant advantage in comparison with later-born children and those from large families. The consistency of these findings across subgroups suggests that interpersonal mechanisms are largely responsible. The strong only-child advantage on tests of verbal ability, together with the overall pattern of findings, implicates parent–child interactions as responsible for the family size and birth order variations in intellectual achievement.

This study investigates the effects of the 1974–75 famine on differential fertility in a rural population of Bangladesh, using information on household socioeconomic status collected in the 1974 census, and registration data on births, deaths and migrations for the period 1974–77 from the Demographic Surveillance System of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh. Occupation of household head was taken as a measure of socioeconomic status. Total fertility rates were analysed for three periods: pre-famine, famine and post-famine. Overall fertility declined due to the famine by 34%, but this was compensated partially by a 17% increase in the post-famine period. Fertility of women of all ages and socioeconomic groups was affected by the famine, a more pronounced effect being observed among the poor. Fertility showed a higher post-famine recovery among women in the middle socioeconomic groups and in those aged 25–34 years.

Recent changes in vital rates in Fiji suggest that the Melanesian (MF) component of the population is growing faster than the Indian (IF) component, thus reversing a long-standing demographic trend.

Patterns of family building were studied in the respondent families of 302 MF and 324 IF children at school in the capital, Suva. Melanesian families were larger than IF families, even when corrected for differences in maternal age and social class. Particularly among IF families, there was a significant effect of social class on family size, higher status families having fewer children. Among all groups there was evidence of a secular trend to earlier childbearing and, less clearly, to an earlier cessation of childbearing. Among both races age-specific fertility levels were similar in younger age-groups, but older IF mothers showed significantly lower fertility.

It is suggested that among IF families, who form a more urbanized and commercially/industrially oriented segment of the Fijian population, two factors may account for the reduction in fertility: (i) pressure to limit population growth in the interests of racial harmony; and (ii) economic pressure resulting in a demographic transition. The latter suggestion is supported by the fact that the greatest decrease in fertility occurs among high status families. Among MFs the reduction in fertility has been less, due probably to the absence of a ‘racial harmony’ incentive and also to a lesser economic stimulus.

A proportional hazards regression model was applied to data on women aged 45–49 from the Egyptian Fertility Survey, to assess the effects of women's education, residence, and marital experience on their age at the birth of their last child. When age at marriage and parity were controlled, well-educated urban women tended to stop reproducing earlier than less educated rural women. Compared to intact first marriages, marital dissolution (divorce, widowhood, or separation) with remarriage tended to prolong the age at last birth, while failure to remarry tended to hasten it.

Results from a 1984 national survey indicate that the large majority of Thai women initiate contraception soon after giving birth. Among sterilized women, the vast majority undergo the operation during the immediate post-partum period and thus avoid the risks of subsequent unwanted pregnancy. Rates of initiation of other methods are unusually high at and immediately following the time at which menses return, and hence only modest proportions of Thai women remain at risk of unwanted pregnancy for very long after the birth of a child.

Inbreeding coefficients were calculated from data on spouse relationships in a sample of 4833 marriages comprising 345 from three Nilotic tribes, 302 from two indigenous Negroid tribes, and 4186 from several Arab and other tribes. The average inbreeding coefficients were 0·0081 to 0·0145 in Nilotic tribes, 0·0251 to 0·0269 in indigenous Negroids, and 0·0286 to 0·0430 in Arab tribes. First cousin unions constituted about half of all the consanguineous marriages and the pattern of first cousin marriages was similar in all three groups. The inbreeding coefficient for the entire sample was 0·0317.

The effect of migration on the maximum opportunity for selection is analysed using koseki data, the Japanese family registration records, of a village population in a small island. When selection intensity is divided into two components, migration greatly influences the variance of the mortality component of the original formula. The difference in selection intensity, with and without allowance for migration, is conspicuous in the recent cohort; the intensity, with a migration component, shows a consistent increase, whereas it declined in the original formula. The implications of this are discussed in the context of the genetic structure of a population of small size, changing rapidly over time.

From analysis of the 1974 Korean National Fertility Survey data, the changing patterns of demographic and socioeconomic determinants of infant and child mortality are generalized. The pattern for infant mortality is: (1) in a traditional society demographic factors affect infant mortality more than socioeconomic factors; (2) at the early stage of development, demographic factors are replaced by socioeconomic factors as the main determinants; (3) when the difference in living standards between social classes narrows, the socioeconomic differentials in mortality also diminish; and (4) at the stage of high development the effects of demographic factors remain although the absolute differences are very small. But the pattern of changing determinants of child mortality is nearly the reverse of that of infant mortality.

The relationship between hepatitis B infection in parents and the sex ratio at birth of their offspring is examined in four populations. The hepatitis B carrier state in parents may increase the sex ratio of their offspring, but it seems that immunization against hepatitis B is unlikely to affect the sex ratio at birth of future generations.

Data from a survey of 3727 14-year-old children from 31 secondary schools in England in 1984–85 were analysed to obtain information about smoking habits, bedtimes and times of rising in the morning, on a weekday during school term. Subjects completed a questionnaire, anonymously, in class. Twenty percent of respondents reported that they currently smoked cigarettes. Smokers went to bed significantly later, and spent significantly less time in bed, than non-smokers. Twice as many smokers as non-smokers went to bed at or after 22.30, went to bed after midnight, and spent 7·5 hr or less in bed. Possibly, some adolescent smokers may be at risk from loss of sleep.