Nearly one in three babies born in England and Wales in 2023 were to mothers born outside the UK, according to recent data, with Ghana making its first appearance in the top 10 countries for
non-UK born mothers while Germany has dropped out.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that 31.8% of live births last year were to non-UK born mothers, a slight increase from 30.3% in 2022. This figure continues an upward trend from a decade earlier when the proportion was 26.5%, surpassing a quarter (25.1%) for the first time in 2010.
The data also showed that 37.3% of live births in 2023 involved parents where at least one was born outside the UK, an increase from 35.8% the previous year.
India maintained its position as the most common country of birth for non-UK born mothers (accounting for 3.6% of live births) and fathers (3.9%), with Pakistan holding second place. Notably, Ghana entered the top 10 for the first time, taking ninth place with 0.6% of live births. Meanwhile, Germany, a top 10 fixture since ONS record-keeping for this measure began in 2003, dropped out.
Albania climbed to seventh place, up from eighth in 2022, having first entered the top 10 in 2021. Afghanistan, which reached the top 10 in 2022 following the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 that spurred resettlement efforts and an increase in Channel crossings, fell to eighth place.
The number of Albanian arrivals by small boat peaked in the summer of 2022, but a subsequent bilateral agreement aimed at reducing such crossings led to a significant decrease in 2023.
ONS head of population health monitoring, Greg Ceely, noted that while the data highlight trends in parental birthplaces, they do not reflect ethnicity or detailed migration histories. He stated, “Almost a third of babies born in 2023 in England and Wales were to non-UK-born women, a slight increase on the percentage in 2022. This is part of a long-term trend of rising proportions of live births to non-UK-born mothers. While our data show the parents’ country of birth, it does not reveal the family’s ethnicity or migration background. It’s also important to remember that not all non-UK-born women are recent immigrants.”
Among notable births last year was the third child of Carrie and Boris Johnson. Boris Johnson, although primarily raised in Britain, was born in New York.
The data revealed that the proportion of births to non-UK-born mothers generally increased with maternal age. For mothers under 20, the percentage was 15.8%, while it rose to 53.9% for mothers aged 45 and above.
For non-UK born fathers, India and Pakistan continued to hold the top two positions. Albania ranked seventh, followed by Afghanistan in eighth place. Iraq appeared as the 10th most common country for fathers, while for mothers, the United States held the 10th spot. Nigeria notably rose to third place among non-UK-born fathers, up from sixth in 2020.
London had the highest proportion of births to parents where one or both were born outside the UK, at 67.4%. Wales and the North East of England reported the lowest proportions, at 17.5% and 20.5% respectively. Photo by Nils Fretwurst, Wikimedia commons.
