Fall in the number of births recorded in Nottinghamshire last year
Fewer live births were recorded in Nottinghamshire last year, new figures show – despite the number rising across England for the first time since 2021.
It comes days after Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson MP (Lab) called on Britons to consider having more children and having them sooner, warning of the ‘worrying repercussions’ posed by a decline in fertility rates.
Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures show live births in England rose 0.7 per cent – the first increase since 2021.
There were 567,708 live births registered last year, up from 563,561 in 2023.
However, in contrast to the national trend, live births in Nottinghamshire fell 1.8 per cent, from 7,466 in 2023 to 7,329 last year.
Births remain at historically low levels, with 2024 ranking as the third lowest total since 1977.
Greg Ceely, ONS head of population health monitoring, said: "In 2024, the annual number of births in England and Wales reverses the recent trend of declining births, recording the first increase seen since 2021.
"Despite this overall rise, the number of births to mothers under 30 fell, as people continue to put off having children until later in life.
"The largest decrease is seen amongst those under 20 years-old, which fell by almost five per cent, while the number of mothers aged 35-39 grew the most.
"A couple of other long-term trends are continuing, such as seeing around half of live births within marriage or civil partnership, and an increase in births to non-UK-born mothers."
In Nottinghamshire, 3,267 (44.6 per cent) births were registered within marriage or civil partnership.
The ONS figures come after Ms Phillipson told The Daily Telegraph: "A generation of young people have been thinking twice about starting a family, worried not only about rising mortgage and rent repayments, wary not only of the price of fuel and food but also put off by a childcare system simultaneously lacking in places and ruinously expensive."
Across England and Wales, some 39.5 per cent of live births had either one or both parents born outside the UK, up from 37.3 per cent in 2023 and 32.5 per cent a decade earlier in 2014.
In Nottinghamshire, 1,616 (22 per cent) births had either one or both parents born outside the UK.