Fertility rate in 2022 fell across most age groups in England and Wales
The rate has been falling since 2010.
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Your support makes all the difference.The total fertility rate across England and Wales fell in 2022, according to the latest figures.
The decrease was driven by women aged 30 to 34, the Office for National Statistics said.
The total fertility rate was 1.49 children per woman in 2022, down from 1.55 in 2021.
The rate has been falling since 2010.
The statistics body said fertility rates decreased overall and in each age group between 2021 and 2022, except for women aged under 20 where the rate increased.
Friday’s publication was the first time the ONS has published total fertility rates for England and Wales in 2022 by area of usual residence of the mother and age-specific fertility rates.
There were 8.7 live births per 1,000 women aged under 20 in 2022, up from 8.3 in 2021.
For women aged between 30 and 34, there were 101.0 live births per 1,000 women in 2021, but this fell to 95.9 in 2022.
The fertility rate is defined as the average number of live children a group of women would have if they experienced the age-specific fertility rates throughout their childbearing life.
Data released last year showed that there had been 605,479 live births in England and Wales in 2022.
This was a 3.1% fall from 624,828 in 2021 and the lowest number since 2002, remaining in line with the recent trend of decreasing live births seen before the coronavirus pandemic.
The ONS said delays in birth registrations because of the coronavirus pandemic affected the cut-off dates for its annual birth registrations datasets for 2020 to 2022.