LONDON

The number of live births in England and Wales rose slightly in 2024, marking the first increase since 2021, according to new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday.

A total of 594,677 live births were recorded last year, a 0.6% increase compared with 2023. While birthrates remain historically low—making 2024 the third lowest year since 1977—the small uptick may signal a pause in the downward trend seen in recent years.

The data reveals a notable shift in parental demographics. The ONS reported a “notable increase” in births to fathers aged 60 and over, rising by 14% from 942 births in 2023 to 1,076 in 2024.

Greg Ceely, the ONS’ head of population health monitoring, said: “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 among those under 20 years old, which fell by almost 5%, while the number of mothers aged 35 to 39 grew the most.”

Indeed, the largest growth in births was among women aged 35 to 39, up 2.7%, while births to mothers under 20 declined by 4.6%, continuing a long-term rise in the average age of parents over the past five decades.

The proportion of live births involving at least one parent born outside the UK also continued to climb, reaching 39.5% in 2024. This is up from 37.3% the previous year and 32.5% in 2014.

However, the ONS cautioned that these figures do not provide a complete picture of a family’s ethnicity or migration history, noting that “not all women born outside the UK would have arrived in the country in the past few years.”

On Monday, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, called on Britons to consider starting families earlier, warning of the “worrying repercussions” linked to declining fertility rates.