Between 1991 and 2021 there has been a clear trend of mothers having children later in life in the United Kingdom, with the average age of mothers in the increasing from 27.7 in 1991 to 30.9 by 2021.

In 2022 the average age of mothers giving birth to their first child in England and Wales was 29.2 years of age, followed by 31.5 years for the second child, 32.6 for the third child, and 33.6 for the fourth child.

Annual live births in England and Wales by age of mother and father, type of registration, median interval between births, number of previous live-born children and National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC).

Live births in the UK by area of usual residence of mother. The tables contain summary data for local authorities and local health boards (within Wales) including figures by age of mother.

This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2023-24, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2024. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. In April 2019, the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This version, MSDS v2.0, is an update that introduced a new structure and content - including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the fifth publication of data from MSDS v2.0 and data from 2019-20 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with a breakdown for the mother's smoking status at the booking appointment by age group. It also provides counts of live born term babies with breakdowns for the general condition of newborns (via Apgar scores), skin-to-skin contact and baby's first feed type - all immediately after birth. There is also data available in a separate file on breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. For the first time information on 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' has been presented using annual data from the MSDS. This includes national data broken down by maternal age, ethnicity and deprivation. From 2025/2026, MSDS will become the official source of 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' information and will replace the historic 'Smoking at Time of Delivery' data which is to become retired. We are currently undergoing dual collection and reporting on a quarterly basis for 2024/25 to help users compare information from the two sources. We are working with data submitters to help reconcile any discrepancies at a local level before any close down activities begin. A link to the dual reporting in the SATOD publication series can be found in the links below. Information on how all measures are constructed can be found in the HES Metadata and MSDS Metadata files provided below. In this publication we have also included an interactive Power BI dashboard to enable users to explore key NHS Maternity Statistics measures. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This report will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. Any feedback on this publication or dashboard can be provided to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, under the subject “NHS Maternity Statistics”.

This statistical release makes available the most recent monthly data on NHS-funded maternity services in England, using data submitted to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). This is the latest report from the newest version of the data set, MSDS.v.2, which has been in place since April 2019. The new data set was a significant change which added support for key policy initiatives such as continuity of carer, as well as increased flexibility through the introduction of new clinical coding. This was a major change, so data quality and coverage has initially reduced from the levels seen in earlier publications. We expect the completeness to improve over time as occurred with the previous version of the MSDS, and are looking at ways of supporting improvements. This month three new measures have been included in this publication for the first time: the proportion of women placed under the care of a Family Nurse Partnership, the proportion of women recorded as not smoking during pregnancy as measured at booking and 36 weeks gestation, and the proportion of women with cephalic presentation who went on to have a spontaneous birth. Two measures were new in the publication last month: the proportion of women booking onto maternity services who have a valid London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy score recorded, and the proportion of women who meet the criteria to be recommended aspirin during pregnancy. Most of these new measures are included in the new 'Pregnancy' grouping. This new data can be found in the Measures file available for download and further information on these new measures can be found in the accompanying Metadata file. The data derived from SNOMED codes is being used in some measures such as those for smoking at booking and birth weight, and others will follow in later publications. SNOMED data is also included in some of the published Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIMs), where rules have been applied to ensure measure rates are calculated only where data quality is high enough. System suppliers are at different stages of developing their new solution and delivering that to trusts. In some cases, this has limited the aspects of data that could be submitted to NHS Digital. To help Trusts understand to what extent they met the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) Data Quality Criteria for Safety Action 2, we previously produced data files during the scheme months which contained information for data providers showing their performance against all MSDS-derived Safety Action 2 criteria. We are reviewing how similar data quality information may be more regularly included in publications in the future. These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. Please note that the percentages presented in this report are based on rounded figures and therefore may not total to 100%.

This is a publication on maternity activity in English NHS hospitals. This report examines data relating to delivery and birth episodes in 2022-23, and the booking appointments for these deliveries. This annual publication covers the financial year ending March 2023. Data is included from both the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) data warehouse and the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). HES contains records of all admissions, appointments and attendances for patients admitted to NHS hospitals in England. The HES data used in this publication are called 'delivery episodes'. The MSDS collects records of each stage of the maternity service care pathway in NHS-funded maternity services, and includes information not recorded in HES. The MSDS is a maturing, national-level dataset. In April 2019 the MSDS transitioned to a new version of the dataset. This version, MSDS v2.0, is an update that introduced a new structure and content - including clinical terminology, in order to meet current clinical practice and incorporate new requirements. It is designed to meet requirements that resulted from the National Maternity Review, which led to the publication of the Better Births report in February 2016. This is the fourth publication of data from MSDS v2.0 and data from 2019-20 onwards is not directly comparable to data from previous years. This publication shows the number of HES delivery episodes during the period, with a number of breakdowns including by method of onset of labour, delivery method and place of delivery. It also shows the number of MSDS deliveries recorded during the period, with breakdowns including the baby's first feed type, birthweight, place of birth, and breastfeeding activity; and the mothers' ethnicity and age at booking. There is also data available in a separate file on breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. The count of Total Babies includes both live and still births, and previous changes to how Total Babies and Total Deliveries were calculated means that comparisons between 2019-20 MSDS data and later years should be made with care. Information on how all measures are constructed can be found in the HES Metadata and MSDS Metadata files provided below. In this publication we have also included an interactive Power BI dashboard to enable users to explore key NHS Maternity Statistics measures. The purpose of this publication is to inform and support strategic and policy-led processes for the benefit of patient care. This report will also be of interest to researchers, journalists and members of the public interested in NHS hospital activity in England. Any feedback on this publication or dashboard can be provided to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk, under the subject “NHS Maternity Statistics”.

This research is a long-term follow-up of the study 'Becoming a Mother' carried out in 1974-6 by Professor Ann Oakley, which explored the experiences of first-time mothers in London from early pregnancy to 5 months after their babies were born. It was groundbreaking at the time, and has remained important and relevant, contributing to our understanding of how maternity care and birth influence women's experiences of motherhood. The aim of the current project is to follow-up participants from the original study, approximately 35 years after the birth of their first child. We will explore their reflections on what makes for a smooth transition to motherhood with positive long-term effects. This can be important on both a societal and personal level, taking into account: the long-term costs to society and mothers of depression and low emotional wellbeing; the desirability of avoiding dysfunctional families; and mothers' capacities to be part of the paid work force. We will also ask the women to reflect on the social and health care practices that contributed to their transitions to motherhood, and their subsequent experiences of such practices within the context of their own changing personal social situations. Uniquely, it will allow us to relate these narratives to those they provided at the time they became mothers. We propose to find the original 55 participants through the Medical Research Information Service and via the internet, searching google and the electoral roll. Those located will be invited to participate in one further in-depth qualitative interview. A semi-structured interview schedule was developed with the help of a virtual panel of peers for our potential participants: women who gave birth to their first child in the UK in the 1970s. The questions in the schedule were also informed by the findings and theory of the original study and by a recent repeat study carried out by the same study team (Oakley et al, 2011). It was formally piloted. Interviews were carried out in women’s homes, predominantly, with a few held in other venues of the woman’s choosing and two conducted over the phone as they were not living in the UK or Ireland. Women were given a chance to ask questions, and then were asked to provide written consent to participate. The interviews were digitally recorded and lasted between 45 and 272 minutes (average length: 128 minutes). The recordings were fully transcribed. Synopses of each interview were prepared, using a proforma to capture key themes. These synopses were comparatively analysed against synopses of transcripts from the original 1970s study to assess level of consensus between the two time periods. Full transcripts were accessed for greater detail and full quotes.

Maternity Services Monthly Statistics January 2022, experimental statistics This is a report on NHS-funded maternity services in England for January 2022, using data submitted to the Maternity Services Data Set (MSDS). This is the latest report from the new version of the data set, MSDSv2. The new data set is a significant change which adds support for key policy initiatives such as personalised care plans and continuity of carer, as well as increased flexibility through the introduction of new clinical coding. This is a major change, so data quality and coverage has reduced from the levels seen in previous publications. The data derived from SNOMED codes is still being developed. We have included data on smoking at booking and birth weight and others such as BMI and alcohol consumption will follow in later publications. SNOMED data is also included in some of the published Clinical Quality Improvement Metrics (CQIMs) where rules have been applied to ensure rates are calculated only where data quality is high enough. System suppliers are at different stages of developing their new solution and delivering that to trusts. In some cases this has limited the aspects of data that could be submitted to NHS Digital. These statistics are classified as experimental and should be used with caution. Experimental statistics are new official statistics undergoing evaluation. More information about experimental statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website. Updated versions of these files were added to this publication on 22 June 2022 to include a correction to the Ethnicity DQ outputs, as 32 providers had previously been incorrectly showing in the files as having met this criteria when they had not.

BackgroundGestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is defined as the type of hyperglycemia diagnosed for the first-time during pregnancy, presenting with intermediate glucose levels between normal levels for pregnancy and glucose levels diagnostic of diabetes in the non-pregnant state. We aimed to systematically review and meta-analyze studies of prevalence of GDM in European countries at regional and sub-regional levels, according to age, trimester, body weight, and GDM diagnostic criteria.MethodsSystematic search was conducted in five databases to retrieve studies from 2014 to 2019 reporting the prevalence of GDM in Europe. Two authors have independently screened titles and abstracts and full text according to eligibility using Covidence software. A random-effects model was used to quantify weighted GDM prevalence estimates. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute criteria was used to assess the risk of bias.ResultsFrom the searched databases, 133 research reports were deemed eligible and included in the meta-analysis. The research reports yielded 254 GDM-prevalence studies that tested 15,572,847 pregnant women between 2014 and 2019. The 133 research reports were from 24 countries in Northern Europe (44.4%), Southern Europe (27.1%), Western Europe (24.1%), and Eastern Europe (4.5%). The overall weighted GDM prevalence in the 24 European countries was estimated at 10.9% (95% CI: 10.0–11.8, I2: 100%). The weighted GDM prevalence was highest in the Eastern Europe (31.5%, 95% CI: 19.8–44.6, I2: 98.9%), followed by in Southern Europe (12.3%, 95% CI: 10.9–13.9, I2: 99.6%), Western Europe (10.7%, 95% CI: 9.5–12.0, I2: 99.9%), and Northern Europe (8.9%, 95% CI: 7.9–10.0, I2: 100). GDM prevalence was 2.14-fold increased in pregnant women with maternal age ≥30 years (versus 15-29 years old), 1.47-fold if the diagnosis was made in the third trimester (versus second trimester), and 6.79- fold in obese and 2.29-fold in overweight women (versus normal weight).ConclusionsIn Europe, GDM is significant in pregnant women, around 11%, with the highest prevalence in pregnant women of Eastern European countries (31.5%). Findings have implications to guide vigilant public health awareness campaigns about the risk factors associated with developing GDM.Systematic Review RegistrationPROSPERO [https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/], identifier CRD42020161857.

The fertility rate of a country is the average number of children that women from that country would have throughout their reproductive years. In the United Kingdom in 1800, the average woman of childbearing age would have five children over the course of their lifetime. Over the next 35 years the fertility rate was quite sporadic, rising to over 5.5 in the 1810s and 1820s, then dropping to 4.9 by 1835. This was during and after the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 with the US, which was a time of increased industrialization, economic depression and high unemployment after the war. As things became more stable, and the 'Pax Britannica' (a period of relative, international peace and economic prosperity for the British Empire) came into full effect, the fertility rate plateaued until 1880, before dropping gradually until the First World War. The fertility rate then jumped from 2.6 to 3.1 children per woman between 1915 and 1920, as many men returned from the war. It then resumed it's previous trajectory in the interwar years, before increasing yet again after the war (albeit, for a much longer time than after WWI), in what is known as the 'Baby Boom'. Like the US, the Baby Boom lasted until around 1980, where it then fell to 1.7 children per woman, and it has remained around this number (between 1.66 and 1.87) since then.

There were almost 695,000 live births recorded in the United Kingdom in 2021, compared with almost 682,000 in the previous year. Between 1887 and 2021, the year with the highest number of live births was 1920, when there were approximately 1.13 million births, while the year with the fewest births was 1977, when there were approximately 657,000 births. Birth rate falls to a historic low in 2020 At 10.2 births per 1,000 people, the birth rate of the United Kingdom in 2020 was at a historic low. After witnessing a twenty-first century high of 12.9 in 2010, the birth rate gradually declined before a sharp decrease was recorded between 2012 and 2013. Although there was a slight uptick in the birth rate in 2021, when there were 10.4 births per 1,000 people, the total fertility rate reached a low of 1.53 births per woman in the same year. As well as falling birth and fertility rates, the average age of mothers has been increasing. In 1991, the average age of mothers at childbirth was 27.7 years, compared with 30.9 years in 2021. UK population reaches 68 million In 2023, the overall population of the United Kingdom reached almost 68.3 million people. Of the four countries that comprise the UK, England has by far the highest population, at 57.7 million, compared with almost 5.5 million in Scotland, 3.2 million in Wales, and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland. These countries are far less densely populated than England, especially when compared to London, which had approximately 5,630 people per square kilometer, compared with just 70 in Scotland. After London, North West England was the second-most densely populated area of the UK, which includes the large metropolitan areas of the cities of Manchester, and Liverpool

According to a survey of parents and children in the UK conducted in 2024, ** percent of children between 16 and 17 years old owned a smartphone, while ** percent of respondents aged between ***** and **** did not have a mobile phone.

Electronic devices available to children Mobile phones are not the only devices children are exposed to daily. At home, indeed, they have access to all kinds of electronic devices, such as TVs, gaming consoles, and radios. For instance, in 2020, ** percent of children had access to a smart TV, and ** percent had a game console. Furthermore, ** percent of children in the UK had access to a PC, laptop, or netbook with an internet connection. Children’s online activities British children perform many different activities online, with mobile phones being the most used devices to go online. Among the most recurring online activities were playing games and watching videos, especially on YouTube. Furthermore, children in the UK appear to spend quite some time on social media platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat, where they spend on average ** and ** minutes daily, respectively.

Whether it’s teaching the importance of good money management, learning about savings, or a way of rewarding a child for good behavior, pocket money is a big issue for parents and children alike in the United Kingdom. In 2023, the average child in the UK received five British pounds a week in pocket money, nearly the same as last year.
Top chores to earn extra As children grow and age, the importance of hard work becomes an important life lesson for a lot of parents. There is a clear correlation between a child’s age and the amount they receive in pocket money. If kids are smart, they will choose their chores wisely. As of 2021, washing the car saw the average child earn almost three British pounds.

Kids in the capital get more In Greater London, the average child received approximately 8.2 British pounds per week in 2018, over 425 GBP per year. Children in the South East and East of England faired off the worst, with an average of two pounds a week less than London in 2018. Meanwhile, savings accounts and piggy banks were some of the most popular financial instruments owned by children in the U.S. in 2022 were savings accounts and piggy banks.