The increase in children born to parents over the age of 60 has helped operate the first increase in the number of births in England and Wales since 2021.
Data from National Statistics Office (ONS) showed that there are 594,677 live births in 2024, an increase of 0.6 % from 2023.
The birth rate is still historically low, with the year 2024, the third lowest since 1977. But the small height means that the declining trend seen in recent years has stopped.
The largest increases in births were found in West Midlands, an increase of 3.4 %, and London, an increase of 1.8 %, with five areas witnessing a decrease on an annual basis, including a 1.4 % decrease in the northeast.
ONS said that there is a “noticeable increase” in the live births of parents between the ages of 60 years and over, which jumped by 14 %, from 942 births in 2023 to 1076 in 2024.
Golds fell to young mothers and fathers, and continued in a long -term direction of the average age of parents, who are steadily over the past fifty years.
It was the largest increase in live births for women between 35 to 39 years old, which grew by 2.7 %, while the largest decrease was seen in those under the age of 20, and decreased by 4.6 %.
“The number of births for mothers has decreased under the age of 30, as people continue to postpone the birth of children up to a later time in life,” said Greg Sili, head of residents’ health control.
“The largest decrease appears among those under the age of 20, which has decreased by approximately 5 %, while the number of mothers between the ages of 35 to 39 nams.”
On Monday, Minister of Education, Bridget Philipson, The British called for thinking about having more children He made them sooner, describing the “disturbing repercussions” offered by a decrease in fertility rates.
“It was a generation of young people thinking twice the start of a family, and they are not concerned only about the high mortgage and rents, not only from the price of fuel and food, but also the child’s care system at one time in places and expensive expensive,” wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Data also showed that 39.5 % of live births in England and Wales last year were either parents or both of them were born outside the United Kingdom, up from 37.3 % in 2023 and 32.5 % in a decade in 2014.
ONS stressed that the data did not give a complete picture of the family race or the history of immigration, or reflects any modern trends in immigration, as not all women born outside the United Kingdom had reached the country in the past few years.
