size within the UK has shifted towards two or one children in recent decades, rather than in the past when larger family sizes were more prominent and sought after. This pattern is similar to other European countries, where couples are having fewer children. Increasingly, there are also more couples who are completely childless; this has been increasing since the 1950s. Life expectancy Life expectancy has increased in the United Kingdom since the 18th century due to the Industrial Revolution and then the Second Industrial Revolution which has vastly increased quality of life of the country's citizens. At the start of the 20th century, the life expectancy at birth was only 45.6 years. By 1950, life expectancy at birth had risen to 68.6 years. During the latter half of the century, further factors influenced the increase of life expectancy: diseases and the improvement of healthcare in the 1950s, decline in smoking in the mid-1970s and improvements in treating heart disease in the 1990s contributed to its decline. At the start of the 21st century, the life expectancy at birth was 77.8 years. In 2011 the life expectancy at birth of the UK was around 80.4 years, but the rate of increase has been stalling. Potential factors behind this may be austerity measures imposed in the beginning of the 2010s, which coincidentally since then mortality rates have slowed down in decline or older people dying off at faster rates than expected. On the topic of austerity measures, Professor Richard Faragher has said that "It is possible to have high or rising life expectancy during austerity, as is the case in Japan. Similarly, you can have rising life expectancy despite high levels of inequality – this was the case in Britain from 1900-1950." but noted that austerity measures to social services like the NHS, especially social care support for the elderly may be causing a stalling of life expectancy increase due to a decreased quality of life for older generations. Infant mortality Infant mortality has been on the decline since the Second Industrial Revolution, although the majority of the decline came around from the start to the end of the 20th century. In raw terms for example, infant mortality in England sat around 151 deaths to 1000 live births in 1901 but by the end of the century it had plummeted down to only 6 deaths per 1000 births. There are two general