Fewer births to foreign mums
Babies born to mothers from outside the UK made up a smaller proportion of all births last year - the first fall in decades
THE proportion of children born in England and Wales to foreign-born mothers has fallen for the first time since 1990.
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that, in 2018, the UK saw 185,569 births to women who were themselves born outside the UK.
They accounted for 28.2% of live births during the year.
The figure is down from 28.4% in 2017.
It is the first time the rate has fallen since 1990.
The proportion of children born to non-UK-born women stood at 11.3% in 1971. It rose very slightly to 13.0% in 1977 following an increase in immigration, but then dropped back down to 11.6% in 1990.
Since then, the figure has consistently risen, year-on-year.
The year 2010 marked the first time that more than one in four babies in the UK was recorded as having a foreignborn mother.
In recent years the increase has begun to slow - but 2018 was the first year it actually showed a decrease.
Kathryn Littleboy, from the ONS’s 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 long-time residents who moved here when they were younger, or those who moved to the UK more recently.
“However, the 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.”
The figures show that Poland was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers - accounting for 18,765 births in 2018. Romania, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh were the next most common countries. In 2018, births in England and Wales to mothers born in EU countries excluding the UK - represented 10.6% of all live births. That was up slightly from 10.5% in 2017.