More babies born out of wedlock than into married families for first time on record

Aug 11, 2022 by Jill

by Joe Pinkstone, Telegraph:

Data shows 51.3 per cent of live births in 2021 were not to married couples – the first majority since records began in 1845.

More babies were born out of wedlock in 2021 than into married families for the first time on record, official data show.

Teenage mothers are also now at a new record low, with just 8.4 births per 1,000 people. This has been steadily decreasing since its peak of 50 in the early 70s.

But the fertility rate has also dropped to a record low for women in their early 20s, at just 43.2 per 1,000 in 2021. The birth rate for people in their late 20s appears to have stabilised, at 84.6 births per 1,000 people.

Meanwhile, births to over-30s remain high, with the early 30s now the most common age range to have a child.

In 2021, there were 16.2 births per 1,000 for over-40s, making a middle-aged mother twice as common as a teenage mother in their respective age groups.

ONS data also published on Tuesday show that roughly one in four births in England and Wales were to a mother who was not born in Britain.

These second-generation immigrants represent families from across the globe, with Pakistan the most common country of origin for fathers and Romania the most common for mothers.

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