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The number of babies born in England and Wales has reached a 36-year high.
Last year there were 708,708 births — the most in one year since 1972. It means each woman has on average 1.95 children — the highest rate since 1973 when there was an average of two per woman.
Women over the age of 40 have seen the highest increase in fertility rates, and over the past decade the number of live births to older mothers has nearly doubled from 13,555 in 1998 to 26,419 last year.
The Office for National Statistics figures also show 24 per cent of births are to mothers born outside the UK, compared with 23 per cent in 2007.
It comes as figures show there has been a surprise drop in the number of abortions. The procedure was performed 195,296 times last year – a drop of 1.6 per cent on the previous year. But there was a rise in the number of terminations between 22 and 23 weeks' gestation. MPs failed to cut the upper time limit for abortions from 24 to 22 weeks last May.
This will come as a surprise to some health charities, which had been predicting the number would pass 200,000 for the first time. Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said: “More abortions are happening at under 10 weeks' gestation.
“This is a priority — to reduce the time women have to wait.”
