Now 28% of babies are born to foreign mothers
‘The highest on record’
ALMOST three in ten babies born in England and Wales last year were the children of immigrant mothers – the highest proportion ever.
A record 28.4 per cent of births were delivered to mothers who were themselves born abroad – more than twice as many as when Tony Blair’s Labour government came to power in 1997 and opened the doors to an unprecedented wave of immigration.
It means a growing share of the country’s rapid population increase is attributable to higher fertility among newlyarrived women than among those already living in Britain.
Yesterday’s birth figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that, overall, the number of babies born in 2017 was down on the previous year, largely because women are delaying pregnancy until their thirties.
In a report, the ONS said: ‘The percentage of live births in England and Wales to mothers born outside the UK continued to rise in 2017, reaching 28.4 per cent. This compares with 28.2 per cent in 2016... the highest on record.’
It added that ‘fertility levels are generally higher among foreignborn women’ and that a higher proportion of them are 25 to 34, when fertility is at its highest. Lord Green, of the campaign group Migration Watch UK, said: ‘These figures are a sharp reminder of the massive and continuing impact of immigration on the scale and nature of our society.’
He added that public concern about high immigration had been forgotten by ministers following the scandal over the denial of rights to Caribbean immigrants of the Fifties and Sixties.
‘The Government seem to have taken their eyes off the ball in their haste to tackle the fallout from the Windrush affair,’ Lord Green said. ‘The public are clear that they want immigration substantially reduced.’ Britain’s population is more than 66million, nearly eight million more than in 1997, when 13.1 per cent of babies were born to mothers from outside the UK, while in 1990 the level was 11.6 per cent.
Official statistics count people who were born outside Britain as immigrants.
Country of birth is regarded as a better indicator of whether someone is a migrant than their nationality, which can be changed.
The method means some people who would not usually be considered immigrants are counted in the figures – for example, mothers born to British service personnel stationed in Germany during the Cold War. The proportion of children from foreign-born mothers was first recorded in 1969, at 11.7 per cent, and remained at a similar level until the late Nineties.
Figures released last year showed that in 2016 some six out of ten babies delivered in London hospitals had mothers who were themselves born abroad, and that in some hospitals the rate was over seven out of ten.
The ONS figures also showed that the proportion of babies born outside marriage rose to 48.1 per cent last year – its highest level.
Babies born to unmarried mothers made up fewer than a fifth of all newborns until the mid-Eighties and hit 40 per cent in 2001. In 2017 the proportion rose from 47.6 per cent in 2016 after remaining virtually steady for five years.
The ONS said cohabiting couples were responsible for six in ten babies born outside marriage.
However, critics insist that cohabitation is frequently unstable and short-lived.
Frank Young, of the Centre for Social Justice, the think-tank founded by former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, said the figures were ‘a worrying sign that the long-term trend away from marriage shows no sign of slowing’.
He added: ‘ This should set alarms bells ringing in the Government, which ends up paying the price for when families break up.
‘Nearly all parents – 93 per cent – who stay together until their children reach 15 are married.
‘Marriage is not just any relationship. The data is clear – it is the gold-standard, with nearly all parents who stay together until their children get their GCSE results being married.
‘Family breakdown costs the UK £51billion a year. This is set to go up and up as we move away from marriage.’