Births plunged to their lowest in half a century last year while foreign-born parents accounted for a record four in ten, official figures show.

There were 585,396 live births in England and Wales last year - down from 594,677 the year before and the lowest since 1976 (584,270). 

It was also the fourth lowest in 100 years, today's figures revealed.

Meanwhile, in a sign of how diverse Britain’s population has become, the data showed 40 per cent of births (235,273) in 2025 were to parents where one or both were foreign born.

This is the highest proportion since 2008, when the Office for National Statistics started calculating the proportion of foreign-born parents.

In a dozen areas across England and Wales, more than three-quarters of births were to parents where at least one was foreign born. This was also the case for over half of births in more than 50 areas.

The London borough of Brent recorded the largest proportion (84 per cent) of births where at least one parent was foreign born (3,748 of 4,456).

This was followed closely by the City of London (84 per cent - 58 of 69 births) and the London borough of Harrow (83.7 per cent - 2,771 of 3,311). 

Outside of the capital, Slough in Berkshire recorded the highest rate (79.2 per cent - 1,800 of 2,272), followed by Luton (78.1 per cent - 2,720 of 3,481) and Leicester (72.4 per cent - 3,223 of 4,454). 

India remained the most frequent country of birth recorded for foreign-born mothers (4.7 per cent) and fathers (4.9 per cent).

Pakistan remained second and Nigeria third for both mothers and fathers. 

As well as birth rates falling, the data highlighted the ongoing trend recorded for around 50 years of people delaying having children until later in life. 

The average age of parents increased to 31.1 years old for mothers and 34 for fathers in 2025, up slightly from 31 and 33.9 in 2024 respectively.

By contrast, in 1975, the average for mothers was 26.4 and 29.5 for fathers.

Bizarrely, there was also a big percentage increase in the proportion of men (7.5 per cent) becoming fathers aged 60 to 64.

The largest fall in births by age group was mothers under 20 years old (8.4 per cent).

The number of live births decreased for parents under 34 years old last year compared to 2024 (11,353 fewer) and rose for parents over this age (2,059 more).

Last year, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson suggested people had been putting off having children because of financial constraints including rising mortgage and rent repayments, fuel and food prices, as well as childcare costs.

The ONS said Boxing Day – December 26 – remained the least frequent birth date since 2013.

It added that the most frequent has been variable. But last year May 28 ranked the most frequent for the first time since 1999.

The stillbirth rate remained stable for England (3.8 per 1,000 births in 2024 and 2025) and Wales (4.4 in 2024 to 4.2 in 2025).

The agency’s Greg Ceely said: ‘In 2025 the number of babies born fell to the lowest level in almost half a century and continues the long-term trend of falling births going back over the past decade.

‘More than a third of births are to mothers born outside the UK which again continues recent trends.’