Fewer babies are being born to non-UK mums
BIGGEST DROP IN REGION SINCE FIGURES BEGAN 18 YEARS AGO
THE number of babies born to non-UK mothers in Greater Manchester is falling at its fastest rate in nearly two decades.
In 2018, 27.7% of babies born in the area had a mother who was not born in the UK.
New Office for National Statistics figures show 9,625 babies were born to non-UK mothers last year, down 2.3% from 9,848 in 2017.
It is the biggest annual drop since records began in 2001.
In comparison, the number of births to UK-born mothers fell by 2.9% in 2018, from 25,911 to 25,151.
In Manchester, 48.0% of babies born last year had a non-UK-born mother. The number of births to non-UK-born mothers in the area fell slightly from 3,510 in 2017 to 3,471 in 2018.
Births to UK-born mothers fell faster, from 3,957 to 3,766.
Across England and Wales, there were 471,476 births to women born in the UK and 185,569 births to women born outside the UK – falls of 3.1% and 3.7% respectively compared with 2017.
As a result the proportion of live births to mothers born outside the UK fell 28.4% in 2017 to 28.2%.
Kathryn Littleboy, from the ONS vital statistics outputs branch, said: “In 2018, just over one in three children born in England and Wales had at least one parent who was born outside the UK.
“These parents could be longtime residents who moved here when they were younger or those who moved to the UK more recently.
“However, today’s figures also show the first decrease in the proportion of live births in England and Wales to non-UK-born mothers since 1990 and the first decrease for non-UK-born fathers since our time series for them began in 2008.”
Poland and Pakistan remained the most common countries of birth for mothers born outside the UK, although the percentage of live births to women born in these countries fell in 2018.
Pakistan has been the most common birthplace for fathers born outside the UK since figures were first produced in 2008, with Poland overtaking Romania in second.