Fertility rate in England and Wales drops to new record low - but one area of Lancashire has some of the highest
Fertility rates dropped to a record low last year, while the number of live births fell to the lowest in nearly five decades.
The rates have been on an overall decline since 2010 in England and Wales, with the rate in 2023 at 1.44 children per woman, the lowest since records began in 1938. According to the Office for National Statistics, the rate was down from an average of 1.49 children per woman over their lifetime in 2022, and has decreased most among women aged 20 to 24 – down 79% from 181.6 live births per 1,000 women of this age group in 1964 to 38.6 in 2023.
Experts state factors such as economic uncertainty and difficulties in finding a partner have contributed to the decline, the PA News Agency reports. The average age of mothers remained stable at 30.9, while fathers’ average age increased slightly from 33.7 in 2022 to 33.8 last year.
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The biggest drops in the overall total fertility rate were in Wales (1.46 to 1.39) and the north west of England (1.53 to 1.46).
Among local authorities in England, Luton in Bedfordshire had the highest fertility rate in 2023 with 2.01. Pendle in Lancashire has the fourth highest, with 1.90.
The City of London had the lowest rate (0.55), followed by Cambridge (0.91), Brighton & Hove in East Sussex (0.98) and Westminster in London (1.00).
Professor Melinda Mills, professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford, said: “People are actively postponing or forgoing children due to issues related to difficulties in finding a partner, housing, economic uncertainty, remaining longer in education and particularly women entering and staying in the labour force.
“Some individuals also actively make the choice to remain childfree. However, there is evidence that postponing having children to later ages when the partners are less able to conceive results in increases in involuntarily childlessness as well.”