Is the traditional family unit making a comeback? Proportion of births in wedlock hits highest level for a DECADE at 52.4%
Some 52.36 per cent of babies had parents who were married or in a civil partnership in England and Wales last year.
That was up nearly two percentage points on 2023, and a level not seen since 2014 when it was 52.5 per cent.
In 1980 nearly nine in 10 babies were born to married couples, but the following decades saw a dramatic move towards cohabitation.
There was also a bump in the number of children born last year, from 591,072 to 594,677.
That was the first increase since 2021, although births remain at historically low levels, with 2024 ranking as the third lowest total since 1977.
The reasons for the changes are not clear. Immigration has been running near record levels, with foreign-born women tending to have a higher birth rates.
Figures from the 2021 census have also suggested that UK residents born outside the EU - the source of most immigration in recent years - are significantly more likely to be married than those born in the UK.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data published earlier this week revealed that foreign-born women accounted for 33.9 per cent of live births in England and Wales in 2024.
That was up from 31.8 per cent the previous year and the highest on record. In 2009 the level was below a quarter.
Two-fifths of babies last year had at least one parent who was born in another country.
However, the proportion varied widely between 68 per cent in London, 44.4 per cent in Greater Manchester, 41.2 per cent in the West Midlands and just 22.6 per cent in the North East.
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