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Release: Characteristics of Birth 1, England and Wales, 2011

Released: 31 October 2012
This product is designated as National Statistics All editions of this release

Contact

Elizabeth McLaren

Vital Statistics Outputs Branch

vsob@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Telephone: +44 (0)1329 444110

Categories: Births and Fertility, Live Births and Stillbirths, Maternities, Live Births, Stillbirths

Frequency of release: Annually

Language: English

Geographical coverage: England and Wales

Geographical breakdown: Region

  • There were 723,913 live births in England and Wales in 2011, compared with 723,165 in 2010 (a rise of 0.1 per cent).

  • The numbers of stillbirths have increased slightly to 3,811 in 2011 from 3,714 in 2010 (a rise of 2.6 per cent). This is partly due to the increase in the total number of births in 2011.

  • Stillbirths per 1,000 live births have increased from 5.1 in 2010 to 5.2 in 2011. This rate has seen small fluctuations in recent years with the highest rate being 5.8 and the lowest rate being 5.1 during the last 10 years.

  • In England and Wales 7 per cent (50,779) of live births were low birthweight (under 2.5kg) in 2011.

In this release

Presents data on birth registrations in England and Wales by birth characteristics. This package contains summary statistics on stillbirths including figures by age of parents and quarter of occurrence. Tables also provide birthweight data for live and stillbirths by mother's area of usual residence and maternities, live births, and stillbirths in hospitals by area of occurrence. See Characteristics of Birth 2 for statistics on multiple births and place of birth.

For information on data quality, legislation and procedures relating to birth statistics, please see Births metadata (375.7 Kb Pdf)  and Quality and Methodology Information for Birth Statistics (117.8 Kb Pdf) .

There is an interactive mapping tool which enables trends in fertility to be analysed at the local level.

The outcome of the birth statistics review and lookup file (44.1 Kb Pdf) shows how the current Characteristics of Birth 1 tables relate to former Series FM1 tables.

The Vital Statistics: Population and Health Reference Tables provide quarterly and annual births data for the United Kingdom and its constituent countries.

For data for other UK countries please see the latest birth statistics for Northern Ireland and the latest birth statistics for Scotland.

We welcome feedback on the content, format and relevance of this release. The Health and Life Events (HLED) User Engagement Strategy (95.1 Kb Pdf) outlines the divisional approach to user engagement.

 

Other useful information

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority has designated these statistics as National Statistics, in accordance with the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:

  • meet identified user needs;
  • are well explained and readily accessible;
  • are produced according to sound methods; and
  • are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest.

Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.

Content from the Office for National Statistics.
© Crown Copyright applies unless otherwise stated.

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