Data Lab| Sovereign for 70 years: Changes that happened in the UK during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign
Data Lab: Sovereign for 70 years
The longest-reigning queen in British history was Queen Elizabeth II. Fundamental changes in the United Kingdom's economy, politics, and society occurred throughout her lengthy reign. Let’s take a look.
Changes in family structure (Divorce and LGBTQI)
Under the Queen, social conventions have undergone a significant shift. Family structures are less strict than they formerly were, which is related to religion's declining power.
Laws passed in the 1960s and early 1970s made divorce considerably simpler and legalised abortion and homosexuality. In 1952, divorcees and families with only one parent were socially stigmatised, but they are now widespread.
For the first time ever, unmarried parents gave birth to the majority of children last year. In England and Wales, same-sex civil partnerships and marriages were first permitted in 2004 and 2013, respectively.
Unemployment rate
The United Kingdom's unemployment rate in July 2022 was 3.6 per cent, which was the lowest level since 1974. In contrast, the unemployment rate was 5 per cent in the three months that ended in January 2021, which was the highest level since August 2016.
The UK had relatively low unemployment rates prior to the Coronavirus epidemic, on par with the middle of the 1970s. The unemployment rate peaked between March 1974 and the most recent month in the spring of 1984 when it reached 11.9 per cent, with other notable peaks coming in early 1993 and late 2011.
Prime Ministers during the queen’s reign
During the late Queen's seventy years on the throne, she had fifteen different prime ministers. The first was Sir Winston Churchill in 1952, and the last was Liz Truss in 2022, more than a century later.
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Women’s participation in the economy
Women's participation in the economy has undergone one of the biggest social transformations during her rule. During both world wars, female employees increased and took men's places in the military, but during peacetime, many industries—particularly mining and manufacturing—were almost entirely dominated by men.
In the last fifty years, the percentage of women in the workforce has increased by a third, in part because of advancements in contraception but also due to shifts in the economy away from heavy industry and toward service industries.
Higher education, which is crucial for a contemporary economy, is where this transition is most apparent. Previously uncommon, female graduates are now the majority among those who receive their first degrees.
Gross Domestic Product
In 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic was at its worst and Britain was the hardest-hit major economy, the country saw its output plummet by the most in more than 300 years.
The Office for National Statistics reported that the GDP decreased by 11 per cent in 2020. According to archived statistics maintained by the Bank of England, this decline was greater than any of the ONS's earlier projections and the greatest decline since 1709.