The fertility rate for England and Wales has fallen to a new record low, figures suggest.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed the number of babies born across the two nations last year dropped to the lowest level in almost half a century.
The provisional total fertility rate across England and Wales, defined as the average number of live children women would expect to have across their childbearing life, was estimated at 1.39 in 2025.
This was down from a rate of 1.41 children per woman in 2024.
For a country’s population to remain stable over time – discounting any impact from migration – the total fertility rate needs to be around 2.1.
The latest provisional figures are based on the 2025 projected population, and final rates are expected to be released later this year.
The data, published on Wednesday, showed there were 585,396 live births in England and Wales last year.
This was a fall from 594,677 in 2024 and is the the lowest number since 1977 when there were 569,259 live births.
Greg Ceely, head of population health monitoring at the ONS, said: “In 2025 the number of babies born fell to the lowest level in almost half a century and continues the long-term trend of falling births going back over the past decade.
“More than a third of births are to mothers born outside the UK which again continues recent trends.”
Last year, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson suggested people had been put off having children because of financial constraints including rising mortgage and rent repayments, fuel and food prices, as well as childcare costs.
The average age of parents increased slightly year-on-year, the data showed.
Mothers had a provisional standardised mean age of 31.1 in 2025, up from 31.0 in 2024.
Fathers had an average age of 34.0 last year, a rise from 33.9.
Parents have been getting older since 1975, when mothers were on average aged 26.4 and fathers were 29.5 years old.
There were four in 10 live births in England and Wales last year where at least one parent was born outside the UK (40.2%), up slightly on 2024 (39.5%).
The proportion of births where the mother was born outside the UK has been on a steady upwards trend for a number of years, climbing from 20.8% in 2005 to 27.5% in 2015 and 34.6% last year.
India was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers in 2025, the fourth year in a row it took the top spot.
It was followed by Pakistan, Nigeria and Romania.
The London borough of Harrow was the local area with the highest percentage of births to a non-UK-born mother (78.0%), while the Isle of Anglesey in Wales had the lowest (4.7%).
Among non-UK-born fathers, India was also the most common country in 2025, followed by Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
Some 56.4% of births last year were to parents both of whom were born in the UK, down from 62.7% a decade earlier in 2015.
The ONS said Boxing Day – December 26 – remained the least frequent birth date since 2013.
It added that the most frequent birth date has been variable but last year May 28 ranked the most frequent for the first time since 1999.
