Key facts on parenthood

  • Numbers of live births have risen substantially in England over the past decade, from just over 600,000 births in the year 2000 to 700,000 in 2009. In the past year, rates have risen by 2.4%, from just over 706,248 in 2009 to 723,165 in 2010. (Source: Office for National Statistics, 2011)
  • London has the highest birth rate in England (defined as the number of live births per 1000 women aged 15 to 44). (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • The lowest conception rate in England was in the North-East at just 73.1 conceptions per 1000 women. This region also had the lowest birth rate at 60.2 births per 1000 women aged 15-44 years. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • The United Kingdom has one of the highest Total Fertility Rates of all the European countries at 2.0 children per woman. (Source: World Health Organisation, 2010)
  • Most babies in 2009 were born to women aged between 30-34, with 202,457 births. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • Mothers have got older. The average age of a mother in 1971 was 26.6, and this had risen to 29.3 in 2008. By age group, the highest numbers of births were by women in their early twenties in 1971. This had changed to their late twenties and early thirties by 2009. In contrast, the number of women having babies before age 20 has halved. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • Women having babies in their late 30s has more than doubled from 45.2 births to 114.3 births per 1000. The number of women having babies after the age 40 has also doubled since 1971, from 12.7 to 27 in 1000 births. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • Far fewer babies are being born to married couples. The number of babies born outside marriage increased sixfold over the past 40 years. Most babies born in 1971 (92%) were to married couples, but in 2010 this fell to about half that (53%). This change is closely associated with fewer marriages, more divorces and a shift to unmarried couples living together instead. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • There has been a large decline in the number of adoptions with only 4,550 in 2010 across all age groups, compared with 22,502 in 1974. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • Conception rates in England and Wales dipped around the turn of the century, but have risen and returned to the levels observed in the early 1990s. In 2001 among every 1000 women aged 15-44 years there were around 70 conceptions; in 2009 there were just over 80. (Source: ONS, 2011)
  • The number of births occurring by in vitro fertilisation (IVF)  in England has increased significantly since use of the technique became more accepted: from 1,226 IVF babies in 1991 to 5,935 in 2005. (Source: Human Fertilisation Embryology Authority, 2007)