The rise of FOREIGN-BORN MUMS
More foreign-born mums are having children in the UK than ever before
MORE than one in every four babies is born to a mother who was born outside the UK the highest rate on record.
There were 679,106 babies born in England and Wales in 2017.
Nearly threequarters (486,417) were born to mothers who were also born in the UK, while in 38 cases the mother’s country of origin was not known. The remaining 192,651 babies were born to mums from outside the UK - 28 per cent of the total, or more than one in four. Data from the Office for National Statistics goes back as far as 2001, when one in every six births (97,802) was to a mother from outside the UK.
Of the 192,651 live births to mothers from outside the UK in 2017, the majority were from European countries.
In fact, one in every eight births was to a mother born in Europe - up from the one in every 33 in 2001.
Also in 2017, one in every 11 births was to a mother originating from the Middle East and Asia, and one in every 21 births was to a mother from Africa.
A further one in every 61 births was to a woman from America and the Caribbean, while one in every 252 was to a mother from Antarctica and the Oceania.
After the UK, Poland was the most popular country of birth for mothers who had a child in 2017.
Some 20,779 mums (or one in 33 births) were born there.
Poland has been the most common country of birth for mothers born outside the UK since 2010.
Back in 2001, Poland did not even feature in 10 most common countries for foreign-born mums in England and Wales. That year, Pakistan topped the list, with one in every 41 babies born to a mum from the country. Within England and Wales, Brent in London had the highest proportion of babies born to at least one parent who was foreignborn (82 per cent). North East Derbyshire, on the other hand, saw just six per cent of births to at least one foreign-born parent.