Birth rate here is UK’s lowest

Birth rates in the district are the lowest in the UK, latest figures reveal.

Researchers counted the number of births per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44 in towns and cities up and down the country.

Their results put Canterbury at the bottom of the list with just 43.5 births per 1,000 women.

The Office of National Statistics looked at registered births in the CT1-CT6 postcodes – covering the city of Canterbury with Whitstable and Herne Bay to the north and the Nailbourne villages to the south.

Its latest figures show Canterbury produced fewer than half the number of newborns per head than those of table leaders Barking, in Essex.

An ONS spokeswoman said the figures would not have been affected by the closure of Kent and Canterbury Hospital’s birthing unit in 2012.

“We look at the first registered place of residence of the baby, as recorded on the birth certificate,” she said.

“If you look at the hospital of birth you run the risk of distortion of results according to where birthing units are.”

The ONS’ figures were first published in October 2013 but have only now been highlighted after Post Office commissioned new research into Britain’s postcodes.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the allocation of postcodes in every town and city in the country, Post Office sought to uncover interesting facts about various postal districts.

It commissioned the Centre for Economic and Business Research (Cebr) to trawl research and study sources and that research, published this week, identified Canterbury as having the lowest birth rates in the country.