Births in England and Wales: 2024

• There were 594,677 live births in England and Wales in 2024, the first increase since 2021.

• The stillbirth rate for England and Wales was 3.9 per 1,000 births in 2024, a decrease of 0.1 compared with 2023.

• The stillbirth rate for England decreased from 3.9 to 3.8 compared with the previous year; but rates increased for Wales, from 4.0 to 4.4, returning to 2022 levels.

• Numbers of live births decreased for parents aged under 30 years and increased for parents aged 30 years and over, with a 14.2% increase in births to fathers aged over 60 years since 2023.

• The proportion of live births to non-UK-born women increased to 33.9% in 2024, an increase from 31.8% in 2023.

• The overall multiple maternity rate decreased in 2024, but increased for mothers aged 45 and over.

In 2024, there were 594,677 live births in England and Wales, an increase of 3,605 (0.6%) compared with 2023 (591,072). This is the first increase since 2021, although it is smaller than the 1.8% increase from 2020 to 2021 (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Number of live births has increased for the first time since 2021

Number of live births, England and Wales, 1838 to 2024

In 2024, there were 567,708 live births in England and 26,832 live births in Wales. Although this is an increase of 0.7% in live births for England, Wales observed a decrease of 2.0% compared with 2023, indicating that Wales continues to experience declining numbers of births consistent with national trends since 2012 (Figure 2).

Several regions in England also experienced a decline in live births: North East, East Midlands, East, South East and South West. The overall increase in births appears to be primarily caused by the numbers of births in the West Midlands and London (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Number of live births in Wales has decreased since 2023, with varied change in English regions

Live births, England and Wales, percentage changes from 2023 to 2024.

The stillbirth rate for England and Wales in 2024 was 3.9 per 1,000 total births, which is a decrease of 0.1 from the previous year. This change is likely because of a decrease in England's stillbirth rates from 3.9 in 2023 to 3.8 in 2024. Stillbirth rates increased in Wales from 4.0 to 4.4 in 2024, returning to 2022 levels.

Other than White British and Any other White background ethnicities, all other ethnic groups had stillbirth rates higher than the overall rate for England and Wales (Figure 3). This trend has been mostly consistent since 2007.

Compared with the previous year, stillbirth rates increased for Mixed or Multiple ethnic groups, Any other Black background and Any other Asian background (Figure 3). For "Any other ethnic groups", stillbirth rates decreased compared with 2023, other than White British, which remained the same. The largest changes in stillbirth rates were observed for the Black Caribbean and Any other Black background groups. However, these populations are quite small (0.81% and 0.77% of all births, respectively) and so are more vulnerable to variance than larger ethnic groups.

Figure 3: Stillbirth rate varies by ethnicity and by year

Stillbirth rates, England and Wales, 2023 to 2024

The average age of parents in England and Wales has been increasing steadily for the last 50 years. In 2024, the number of live births for mothers showed:

• a decrease in live births in lower age bands (those aged under 20, those aged 20 to 24 years, and those aged 25 to 29 years)

• an increase in live births in higher age bands (those aged 30 to 34 years, those aged 35 to 39 years, and those aged 40 years and over) (Figure 4)

• the largest increase in live births from 2023 to 2024 was for mothers aged 35 to 39 years, where numbers of live births grew by 2.7%

• the largest decrease of live births was seen in those aged under 20 years, declining by 4.6%

When observing mothers’ ages by country of birth, only 15.7% of live births for those aged under 20 were to non-UK-born mothers, however for mothers aged 40 to 44 and 45 and over, non-UK-born mothers make up 44.2% and 55.5% of live births, respectively.

Fathers' ages followed a similar pattern:

• a decrease in live births in lower age bands (up to those aged 25 to 29 years)

• an increase in live births in higher age bands (those aged 30 to 34 years, and those aged 35 years and over)

• a small decrease of 0.6% in live births in those aged 45 to 49 years (Figure 5)

• a notable increase of 14.2% in those aged 60 years and over, from 942 live births in 2023 to 1,076 live births in 2024

In 2024, the percentage of live births where either one or both parents were born outside of the UK was 40.4% in England (up from 38.2% in 2023), and 19.4% in Wales (up from 17.5% in 2023).

London remains the region with the highest percentage of live births where at least one parent was born outside of the UK. However, it had the smallest change compared with the other regions from 2023 to 2024, with an increase of only 0.9%. The highest increase from the previous year was in the West Midlands, increasing from 37.6% to 41.2%. The region with the lowest percentage of live births, where at least one parent is born outside the UK, remains in North East England (22.6%).

At local authority (LA) level in England, Torridge (6.3%) had the lowest percentage of live births where either one or both parents were born outside of the UK, and the City of London (84.4%) had the highest. Although, the highest without including the London Boroughs was Luton (78.9%).

In Wales, the LA with the highest percentage of live births where either one or both parents were born outside of the UK was the capital city, Cardiff, at 40.6%. From 2023 to 2024, only three LAs experienced a decrease in percentage; Monmouthshire (16.9% to 16.3%), Flintshire (15.0% to 13.7%) and Caerphilly (9.2% to 8.9%). Caerphilly also had the lowest percentage overall in Wales.

Figure 6: Percentage of live births where one or both parents were born outside the UK is increasing overall, but varies by local authority

Percentage of live births where one or both parents were born outside the UK by local authority district, England and Wales, 2016 to 2024

Notes

1. Figures are based on mothers’ usual area of residence, based on boundaries as of May 2025. 

In 2024, Iraq moved into the top ten most common countries of birth for non-UK-born mothers, at tenth place (Table 1). For fathers, this occurred in 2023, and Iraq has remained in tenth place for fathers in 2024.

India remains the most frequent country of birth for non-UK-born mothers and fathers for the third year in a row (since 2022).

The multiple maternity rate (MMR) (the proportion of maternities with multiple babies) has broadly been decreasing since 2015. Births in 2024 have followed this trend with the MMR decreasing by 4.2% from 14.4 in 2023 to 13.8 in 2024.

Those aged 45 years and over had the highest MMR by far, five times higher than the overall rate for all ages in 2024. This age group had the largest increase in MMR from 2023 to 2024, rising from 70.5 to 72.6. Conversely, the largest decrease in MMR was for mothers aged 40 to 44 years. This fell from 20.4 in 2023 to 17.8 in 2024, thus expanding the gap in MMR. The only other age group whose MMR increased in 2024 was those aged 20 to 24 years, with a small rise to 9.5 from 9.3 in 2023. The group of those aged 45 years and over constitutes a small proportion of the births data (0.4%), which is why this increase had minimal effect on the overall rate.

Figure 7: Multiple maternity rate decreased in 2024, but increased for mothers aged 45 years and over

Multiple maternity rate by mothers' age group, England and Wales, 2018 to 2024

Live birth

A baby showing signs of life at birth. 

Country of birth

The country in which a person was born.

Stillbirth

A baby born after 24 or more weeks completed gestation and which did not, at any time, breathe or show signs of life. On 1 October 1992 the Still-Birth (Definition) Act 1992 came into force, altering the definition of a stillbirth to 24 or more weeks completed gestation, instead of 28 or more weeks completed gestation.

Stillbirth rate

Defined as the number of stillbirths per 1,000 live births and stillbirths.

Multiple maternity rate (MMR)

Defined as the number of maternities that result in two or more births per 1,000 maternities.

Measuring the data

The birth registrations dataset represents live births and stillbirths occurring in the calendar year, plus a small number of late registrations from the previous year.

Birth statistics represent births that occur and are then registered in England and Wales. Figures are derived from information recorded when live births and stillbirths are registered as part of civil registration, which is a legal requirement. Figures include mothers and fathers whose usual residence is outside England and Wales. These data represent the most complete data source available.

The registration of births is a service carried out by the Local Registration Service in partnership with the General Register Office (GRO), in England and Wales. Birth registration is linked to the NHS birth notification within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to obtain the age of the mother where this was missing on the birth registration. It also enables the analysis of further characteristics such as birthweight, ethnicity of the baby and gestation of live births.

Following previous procedures on birth statistics, when referencing England and Wales in this bulletin, the data in the corresponding data tables is "England, Wales and Elsewhere". In this context, "Elsewhere" refers to a birth to a mother whose usual residence is outside England and Wales.

Population estimates impact on rates and timeliness

Fertility rates for 2024 have not been calculated in the release because mid-year 2024 population estimates were not available at the time of production. For the foreseeable future, publication of counts of live births, stillbirths and maternities, and stillbirth rates will be published in the first instance. Fertility rates, including Total Fertility Rate and Age-Specific Fertility Rates, will be published as soon as mid-year population estimates are made available. The updated workbooks will be published in the same data series as this publication.

Public consultation and our data

The ONS, together with the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, and UK Health Security Agency conducted a public consultation into our health statistics, which closed in March 2024. This consultation collected views on how these organisations' health statistics are used, including a proposal to combine and reformat the ONS's annual birth statistics, improving three bulletins. These bulletins include Births in England and Wales, Birth characteristics in England and Wales, and Births by parents' country of birth, England and Wales.

All the data from our Births in England and Wales and Birth characteristics in England and Wales bulletins have been preserved, alongside the addition of some new statistics. Data are now presented in a long format to aid with more efficient analysis.

These data are now published in three data series:

• Births in England and Wales: birth registrations

• Births in England and Wales: linked births

• Births in England and Wales: Births by parents' country of birth

A lookup table has been added to the data downloads, explaining where statistics from previous editions can be found in the new table format.

The ONS, Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, and UK Health Security Agency has published a full response to the consultation, summarising feedback on all proposals. Further improvements will be made in future releases.

More quality and methodology information

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Births Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

Our user guide to birth statistics methodology provides further information on data quality, legislation and procedures relating to births, and includes a glossary of terms.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "Accredited official statistics".

For more on accredited official statistics, read the Office for Statistics Regulation guidance.