BRITAIN’S baby rate has plunged to a record low, figures reveal.
The average number of children a woman can expect to have fell for the third year in a row, to 1.41 in England and Wales in 2024.
1
That’s down from 1.42 the year before and the lowest since records began in 1938, the Office for National Statistics said.
But experts warn a rate of 2.1 is needed to keep the population stable without migration.
Births rose slightly from 591,072 to 594,677 last year, but population growth meant the rate per woman dipped.
Scotland also hit a new record low this week, dropping to 1.25, with Northern Ireland’s figures still to come.
The West Midlands was the region with the highest fertility rate while the South West had the lowest.
Luton topped the list with 2.00 children per woman, while the City of London had the lowest at just 0.32.
The long term trend of starting a family older continued, with the average age of mums at 31 and at 33.9 for dads.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson last month called on Brits to consider having more kids and warned of the “worrying implications” of less bonking for babies.
She said: “A generation of young people have been thinking twice about starting a family, worried not only about rising mortgage and rent payments, wary not only of the price of fuel and food but also put off by a childcare system simultaneously lacking places and ruinously expensive.”
