The number of babies born in England and Wales in a year dropped in 2022 to the lowest level in two decades, according to official figures.
It follows the recent trend of decreasing live births, which had been the case before the pandemic, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
The number has been steadily decreasing for the past decade – returning to roughly the level seen in the early 2000s. It has recently recovered twice from relative lows – on that occasion, and in the mid-1970s – before reaching relative highs in 1990 and 2012.
The ONS data, released on Thursday, showed there were 605,479 live births in England and Wales in 2022. That was down 3.1% from 624,828 in 2021 – and the lowest number since 2002, when there were 596,122.
Before that, the next low point was the 569,259 live births recorded in 1977. Following that year, there was a medium-term upward trend until a high-point of 706,140 in 1990. There was a broad downward path in the following 11 years, down to 594,634 live births in 2001.
There was another broad upwards trend for the next 11 years, until the 729,674 recorded in 2012. While the last decade has not exclusively seen year-on-year falls, the recent trend has been clearly downwards. The latest year’s figures were more than a third down on the highest level on record – the 957,782 births recorded in 1920.
The number of births occurring outside marriage or civil partnership remained higher than births within either. There were 311,306 live births (51.4%) registered to women outside a marriage or civil partnership in 2022, the ONS data showed.
The figures also showed the highest proportion born to women born outside the UK since records began.
“Almost a third of all those births were to non-UK-born women. This is the highest proportion of live births to non-UK-born women seen since our records began, with India now the most common country of birth for non-UK-born parents,” said James Tucker, the head of health analysis at the ONS.
It replaced Romania as the most common country of birth for non-UK-born women, according to the ONS figures. There were 17,745 live births to Indian women; a 16.3% increase from 15,260 in 2021. Pakistan was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born fathers.
Afghanistan was the seventh most common country for non-UK-born women; appearing in the Top 10 for the first time since reporting began in 2003.
That coincided with the increase in Afghan arrivals to the UK through government resettlement schemes, the ONS said, after the Taliban takeover of the country two years ago.
The ONS said birth statistics represented births that occurred and were then registered in England and Wales.
