Average age of motherhood up to record 30.7

THE average age of mothers giving birth has hit a record high, government figures have revealed.

Data published by the Office for National Statistics detailing birth and parental characteristics showed that the average age of a mother rose to 30.7 years in 2019.

It also found that the average age of fathers in England and Wales stayed at 33.6 years – itself a record high.

Overall, the average ages of mothers and fathers has risen consistently since they were at their lowest points in the Seventies.

David Corps, from the ONS vital statistics outputs branch, said: “Stillbirth rates varied by age with the youngest and oldest mothers generally seeing the highest risk of stillbirth since the beginning of the century.

“In 2019, the percentage of preterm live births in England and Wales decreased slightly which indicates a potential change in this trend which we will continue to monitor.

“By the end of this year, we will release provisional figures about births in 2020 where we will assess stillbirth rates, gestational age and other factors that could have been affected by the pandemic.”

Researchers also found that there were 640,370 birth registrations in 2019, down from 657,076 in 2018 – marking a fall of 2.5 per cent.

Just over half ( 51.5 per cent) of these were within a marriage or civil partnership.

Meanwhile, the stillbirth rate is at a record low, with 2,522 stillbirths registered in 2019, a rate of 3.9 stillbirths per 1,000 births.

The statistics are taken from live births and stillbirths registration, and relates to births that took place in 2019, with a very small number of late registrations from the previous year. Almost all live births (97.5 per cent) took place in an NHS establishment.