English Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

English - Essay Example However, in 2008, this type of household, at 36%, still represents the biggest cohort among all the other different types in Great Britain. The percentage of families with dependent children has stayed relatively steady; while the composition of single parent families in the overall study decreased at a relatively small change rate, over the years. This latter cohort also represents the smallest group. Other types of households, which comprise of same sex couples and civil partners, have increased from 19% to 25%. Overall, people in private households have increased over the decades from 53.4 million to 58.8 million. Let us now take a deeper look at the size of households using the second table. This table looks at the size of households based on the number of persons living in them, from 1 person up to 6 or more. This study also covers nearly 40 years from 1971 to 2008. The biggest group in these cohorts is comprised of two people households, which is related to the couples and fami lies with no children data shown in the earlier table. Starting at 32% in 1971, this category has increased marginally to 35% in 2008. One person households have increased significantly over the decades also, going from 18% in 1971 to 29% in 2008. This single group, in fact, represents the biggest chunk in the overall increase in households that Great Britain has seen since 1971. It is interesting to note that all the other categories of households of more than two people, including households with three, four, five and more than six people, have decreased in the past decades: three people households have decreased from 19% to 16%; four people households have decreased from 17% to 13%; five people households have gown down from 8% to 5%; and households with 6 or more people have decreased from 6% to a mere 2%, maintaining its status as the smallest group. This data concludes effectively that the size of the average household in Great Britain has decreased from 2.9 persons to 2.4 per sons from 1971 to 2008. The contributing factors to this change are a) the increased number of one and two person(s) households, and b) the decreased number of households with 3 or more persons. Assignment 2: Examine the argument that neighbourly relations are characterised by friendly distance. Neighbours make a very important component of societal life: how neighbours behave and interact with each other has a direct effect on the type of communities that are established; whether these communities have cordiality, understanding and generosity or aloofness and mistrust is dependent on how neighbourly relations are. This essay attempts to describe the various characteristics, components and manifestations of strong and good neighbourly relations to shed light on the question of whether these relations are best when friendly but at a distance. The word ‘neighbour’ is used to describe the person living right next door to another person; in speaking terms, neighbours includ es people who reside close together on a street or residential area. A ‘neighbour’ holds an intrinsic social identity (Taylor, p. 167) and associations based on a neighbour’s role. Having good neighbours or a ‘nice neighbourhood’ is a very important characteristic of fruitful social life. However, the definition of a ‘