How fertility rates compare in your area after record drop in births

Parts of London and locations with major universities account for many of the lowest local fertility rates across England and Wales, according to newly released figures.

The City of London recorded the lowest rate in 2025 at 0.37 children per woman, followed by Cambridge on 0.87, and Islington and Westminster in the capital on 0.90.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) defines the fertility rate as the average number of live children women would expect to have over their childbearing life.

Further locations registering the lowest rates in 2025 included Brighton & Hove at 0.95, the London borough of Southwark at 0.97, and Norwich at 0.98.

Exeter, Oxford and York, along with Camden and Hammersmith & Fulham in the capital, all had rates of 1.01 children per woman.

At the other end of the chart, Pendle in Lancashire and Luton in Bedfordshire were tied with the highest rate (1.93), followed by Oldham in Greater Manchester (1.87), Bradford in West Yorkshire (1.84) and Barking & Dagenham in London (1.83).

Figures published earlier this year by the ONS showed the overall fertility rate for England and Wales has dropped to a new record low, falling from 1.41 in 2024 to 1.39 in 2025.

For a country’s population to remain stable over time – discounting any impact from migration – the rate needs to be around 2.1.

Some 12 of the top 25 local authorities with the lowest fertility rates in 2025 were in London.

In Wales, Swansea had the lowest rate at 1.18, while the highest rates were in Carmarthenshire, the Isle of Anglesey and Newport (all 1.48).

There were 585,396 live births in England and Wales last year, down from 594,677 in 2024 and the lowest number since 1977.

Live births fell in every region in England, with largest percentage decrease in the West Midlands (down 3.1%) and the smallest in the North East (down 0.3%).

The average age of parents increased slightly year on year, the ONS data showed.

Mothers had a provisional standardised mean age of 31.1 in 2025, up from 31.0 in 2024.

Fathers had an average age of 34.0 last year, a rise from 33.9.

Parents have been getting older since 1975, when mothers were on average aged 26.4 and fathers were 29.5 years old.

The proportion of births where the mother was born outside the UK has been on a steady upwards trend for a number of years, climbing from 20.8% in 2005 to 27.5% in 2015 and 34.6% last year.

India was the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers in 2025, the fourth year in a row it took the top spot.

It was followed by Pakistan, Nigeria and Romania.

Some 56.4% of births last year were to parents both of whom were born in the UK, down from 62.7% a decade earlier in 2015.