Live births

Live births by age of mother/father, sex, marital status, country of birth, socio-economic status, previous children and area.

Highlights

Baby names in England and Wales: 2018

What's in the bulletin?

  • Oliver remained the most popular name for boys in England and Wales for the sixth year in a row, while Olivia remained the most popular name for girls for the third year in a row.
  • Arthur was the only new entry into the top 10 names for boys in 2018, replacing Jacob, while Sophia and Grace replaced Poppy and Lily in the top 10 names for girls.
  • Grayson, Jasper, Rowan, Tobias, Sonny and Dominic entered the top 100 names for boys in 2018; Grayson, Rowan and Tobias have previously never featured in the top 100.
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Births in England and Wales: 2018

What's in the bulletin?

  • There were 657,076 live births in England and Wales in 2018, a decrease of 3.2% since 2017 and a 9.9% decrease since the most recent peak in 2012.
  • The total fertility rate (TFR) decreased from 1.76 to 1.70 children per woman in 2018; this is lower than all previous years except 1977 and 1999 to 2002.
  • The crude birth rate (CBR) decreased from 11.6 to 11.1 live births per 1,000 total population in 2018; this is the lowest rate since records began in 1938.
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Baby names explorer

Use our interactive tool to compare changes in the top 100 baby names for boys and girls since 1904.

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Datasets related to Live births

  • Births in England and Wales: summary tables

    Annual summary statistics on live births and stillbirths, by sex, age of mother, whether inside marriage or civil partnership, percentage of non-UK-born mothers, birth rates and births by mothers' area of usual residence.

  • Births by mothers’ usual area of residence in the UK

    Live births in the UK by area of usual residence of mother. The tables contain summary data for local authorities and local health boards (within Wales) including figures by age of mother.

  • Baby names for girls in England and Wales

    Rank and count of the top names for baby girls, changes in rank since the previous year and breakdown by country, region and month of birth.

  • Baby names for boys in England and Wales

    Rank and count of the top names for baby boys, changes in rank since the previous year and breakdown by country, region and month of birth.

  • Birth characteristics

    Annual live births in England and Wales by sex, ethnicity and month, maternities by place of birth and with multiple births, and stillbirths by age of parents and calendar quarter.

  • Births by parents’ characteristics

    Annual live births in England and Wales by age of mother and father, type of registration, median interval between births, number of previous live-born children and National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC). The associated publication that uses the 2018 data has been combined with the publication for Birth characteristics in England and Wales. Commentary for both publications is covered in the Birth characteristics in England and Wales: 2018 bulletin.

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Publications related to Live births

Statistical bulletins

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Methodology related to Live births

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