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Irish Wedding News

17/07/2014

Number Of Births Hits 40-Year Low

Official figures have revealed that the number of births in England and Wales in 2013 have fallen by the largest annual amount in almost 40 years.

The report, published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), discovered that the number of live births had declined from 729,674 to 698,512 in 2013 – a fall of 4.3%. This is the largest fall in figures since 1975, it added.

The "total fertility rate" (TFR), which is the number of children per woman, fell from 1.94 to 1.85, while the stillbirth rate also fell from 4.9 per thousand births in 2012 to 4.7 in 2013. More than a quarter of live births were to mothers born outside the UK, up from 25.9% in 2012 to 26.5% last year.

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Addressing the findings, the ONS report said: "Changes in the TFR can result from changes in the timing of childbearing within women's lives as well as any changes in completed family size.

"It is not possible to determine at this stage whether the fall in the TFR and the number of live births in 2013 is indicative of an end to the general increasing trend recorded since 2001. Despite this recent drop, the number of births and the TFR remain high relative to figures for the last three decades."

It suggested that reasons for the declining figures could be down to uncertainty over employment or career opportunities, as well as changes to Britain's welfare system.

Elsewhere, the average age of mothers has now reached 30 for the first time.

"The average age of mothers has been increasing since 1975, with increasing numbers of women delaying childbearing to later ages," the report stated. "This may be due to a number of factors such as increased participation in higher education, increased female participation in the labour force, the increasing importance of a career, the rising opportunity costs of childbearing, labour market uncertainty, housing factors and instability of partnerships."

In 2013, almost half of babies were born outside a marriage or civil partnership, with the ONS saying this was a rising trend. In 2003, the figure stood at 41.4%.

(JP/IT)

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"Official figures have revealed that the number of births in England and Wales in 2013 have fallen by the largest annual amount in almost 40 years."