Non-UK born mothers gave birth to 24% of Britain’s babies in 2011

Thursday, 25 October 2012 - 9:34pm

Non-UK born women gave birth to 196,000 babies in 2011: ONS

Image: Wikimedia Commons (Mahalie Stackpole)

Women born outside of the UK gave birth to 196,000 babies (24%) in the UK in 2011. Poland led the pack of non-UK born mothers followed by Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nigeria, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The 24% figure marks a 2% rise in the number of women of childbearing age who were born outside the UK, and a fall of 5% in the number of UK born women of childbearing age since 2007, an ONS report revealed.

In 2001, Britain witnessed a total of 808,000 births – of this, 612,000 were to UK born women and 196,000 to non-UK born women.

The national statistics organisation’s report further found that fertility rates among non-UK born women were higher than for UK born women.

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for non-UK born women in 2011 was 2.28 children per woman, as against 1.89 children per woman for UK born women. But this difference is narrowing as TFR among UK-born mothers is increasing. The fertility was higher among non-UK born women in the capital city London.

Mothers born in Poland gave birth to around 23 thousand babies in 2011 – the highest among the non-UK born women. It is the most common in each of the four UK countries and London, reflecting the wide geographical distribution of women born in Poland.

The study also found that women born in Pakistan have the highest fertility rates in comparision to India, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Poland.