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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Alexandra Topping

Young women in England and Wales projected to have just one child by 35

Mother and young child looking out of window.
Figures from the ONS showed that the birthrate in England and Wales had dropped to an all-time low of 1.44 children per woman in 2023. Photograph: Kaan Sezer/Getty/iStockphoto

Young women in England and Wales are likely to have just one child by the time they are 35, according to groundbreaking analysis of past and projected fertility trends by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Girls who turn 18 this year are projected to have an average of one child each by the age of 35 – unlike their mothers’ generation who had an average of one child per woman by the time they reached 31.

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