This page collects the latest official UK birth statistics, and the pregnancy figures around them, for anyone who needs a figure to cite: journalists, students, researchers, and parents curious about the wider picture. Every number names its source, the period it covers and the part of the UK it describes. That matters, because there is no current UK-wide birth dataset: England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each publish their own, and NHS hospital statistics for England come separately again. All figures were checked against the original releases on 7 October 2026.

UK birth statistics at a glance

Live births and mothers' ages, latest year by nation
Measure	England and Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Live births	585,396 (2025)	45,067 (2025)	19,416 (2024)
Total fertility rate	1.39 (2025)	1.23 (2025)	Not quoted here
Average age of mothers	31.1 (2025, standardised)	31.4 (2025)	31.5 (2024)
Average age at first birth	29.6 (2025, standardised)	Not quoted here	29.6 (2024)

Sources: Office for National Statistics (ONS), Births in England and Wales: 2025; National Records of Scotland (NRS), vital events for 2025; Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), Registrar General Annual Report 2024.

The 585,396 live births in England and Wales in 2025 were 1.6% fewer than the 594,677 in 2024, and the ONS notes that the number is the lowest since 1977. England recorded 558,988 births and Wales 26,282. NRS calls Scotland's 45,067 "the lowest annual total since records began in 1855", and its fertility rate of 1.23 the lowest since its published series began in 1951. NISRA's provisional quarterly tables for Northern Ireland in 2025 add up to 19,062 births registered; that total may change.

Why no UK total? The ONS's UK-wide tables, Vital statistics in the UK, were last released on 24 February 2023 and cover 2021. Adding the nations together would also mix counting rules: England and Wales count births occurring in the year, Scotland and Northern Ireland count births registered in it.

Mothers' age

Live births by age of mother, England and Wales, 2025
Age of mother	Live births	Share of all live births
Under 20	12,196	2.1%
20 to 24	63,485	10.8%
25 to 29	146,600	25.0%
30 to 34	206,013	35.2%
35 to 39	125,912	21.5%
40 to 44	28,317	4.8%
45 and over	2,800	0.5%

Source: ONS, birth registrations dataset, 2025, table 6. Shares calculated by ShePrep against all 585,396 live births; 73 births with the mother's age not stated are in the total but in no row.

So 26.8% of live births (157,029) were to mothers aged 35 or over, and 5.3% (31,117) to mothers aged 40 or over. The ONS standardised mean age at first birth was 29.6 in 2025, against 28.6 in 2015. In Scotland, 36.8% of 2025 births were to mothers aged 30 to 34, an all-time high, and 2.4% to mothers under 20 (NRS). In NHS hospitals in England, deliveries to women under 20 halved in a decade, from 23,405 in 2014-15 to 11,732 in 2024-25 (NHS England).

Caesarean, induction and assisted birth

Method of delivery, NHS hospitals in England, 2024-25
Method	Deliveries	Share of deliveries with a known method
Spontaneous vaginal	232,574	44.0%
Instrumental (forceps or ventouse)	57,426	10.9%
Caesarean, all	238,052	45.1%
Elective caesarean	105,635	20.0%
Emergency or other caesarean	132,417	25.1%

Source: NHS England, NHS Maternity Statistics, 2024-25, Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) tables 1.d and 3.a. The year runs from 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025; there were 542,235 deliveries, the lowest in the decade the release covers.

Caesareans were 26.5% of deliveries in 2014-15 (11.1% elective, 15.4% emergency or other). NHS England reports caesarean as the most common method of delivery for women aged 30 and over, and 59% of deliveries to women aged 40 and over. For what each involves, see what happens at a planned caesarean and forceps and ventouse births.

Method of delivery by age of mother, NHS hospitals in England, 2024-25 (%)
Method	Under 20	20 to 29	30 to 39	40 and over	All ages
Spontaneous	58	48	42	35	44
Instrumental	14	12	10	6	11
Caesarean	29	39	48	59	45

Source: NHS England, NHS Maternity Statistics, 2024-25, summary report 5.

Induction of labour

Labour was induced in 30% of NHS hospital deliveries in England with a recorded method of onset in 2024-25, up from 27% in 2014-15. Over the same decade spontaneous onset fell from 59% to 42%, and caesarean recorded as the method of onset rose from 14% to 28% (NHS England, summary report 3). The reasons and methods are explained in how induction of labour works.

Scotland

Public Health Scotland (PHS) measures these as a share of live singleton births. For the year ending 31 March 2025 it reports caesarean births at 43.5% (21.5% elective, 22% emergency) and induction of labour at 33.5%. The denominators differ, so the Scottish and English rates are not directly comparable.

Twins and multiple births

Maternities by multiplicity, England and Wales, 2025
Type of maternity	Number	Rate per 1,000 maternities
All maternities	579,155	—
Twins	8,256	14.3
Triplets	132	0.2
Quadruplets and above	4	—
All multiple maternities	8,392	14.5

Source: ONS, birth registrations dataset, 2025, tables 7 and 8. A maternity is a pregnancy ending in the birth of one or more babies, live or stillborn, so it counts women giving birth rather than babies.

The multiple maternity rate rises with age, from 6.9 per 1,000 for mothers under 20 to 17.3 at 35 to 39, 17.9 at 40 to 44 and 68.3 at 45 to 49. In Scotland, multiple births were 1.4% of maternities in 2025, with 602 twin maternities and 8 of triplets or more (NRS). See what affects the chances of having twins.

Preterm birth and gestation

Live births by gestational age, England and Wales, 2025
Completed weeks	Live births	Share
Under 24	866	0.1%
24 to 27	1,888	0.3%
28 to 31	4,418	0.8%
32 to 36	38,792	6.6%
37 to 41	532,122	91.0%
42 and over	5,617	1.0%

Source: ONS, linked births dataset, 2025, table 3. Shares are of its 584,589 live births, including 205 with an implausible recorded gestation.

The ONS defines a pre-term birth as a live birth at 24 to 36 completed weeks. On that definition 45,098 live births, 7.7%, were pre-term in 2025 (ShePrep calculation from the counts above). The ONS adds that births to mothers aged 45 and over were more likely to be pre-term than births to younger mothers. In Scotland, PHS reports 6.8% of live singleton births in 2024/25 as preterm, meaning before 37 weeks, a rate rising since 2011/12. The clinical side is in our guide to preterm labour.

Birthweight

Live births by birthweight, England and Wales, 2025
Birthweight	Live births	Share
Under 1,500 g	4,766	0.8%
1,500 to 2,499 g	34,332	6.1%
2,500 to 2,999 g	101,172	17.9%
3,000 to 3,499 g	213,237	37.6%
3,500 to 3,999 g	162,525	28.7%
4,000 g and over	50,539	8.9%

Source: ONS, linked births dataset, 2025, tables 1 and 2. Shares are of the 566,571 live births with a known birthweight, calculated by ShePrep.

Low birthweight, under 2,500 g, applied to 39,098 live births, 6.9%. NHS England's hospital data for 2024-25 are similar: 7% of babies with a recorded weight were under 2.5 kg and 1% under 1.5 kg. These tables give birthweight in bands, not as an average, so this page does not quote an average.

Where babies are born

Of the 579,155 maternities in England and Wales in 2025, 566,891 were in NHS establishments, 9,582 at home (1.7%), 1,921 in non-NHS establishments and 761 elsewhere (ONS, birth registrations dataset, table 4). The count records where the birth happened, not whether a home birth was planned. NHS England's hospital statistics leave home births out because their coverage in HES is poor. For outcomes by planned place of birth, see the evidence on planned home birth.

Conceptions

The ONS counts a conception as a pregnancy that ends in a maternity or a legal abortion; miscarriages are not included. In England and Wales in 2023 there were 871,050 conceptions, a rate of 72.7 per 1,000 women and the third annual rise in a row. Of these, 32.1% led to a legal abortion, the highest proportion on record. The rate for women aged under 20 was 28.0 per 1,000 (ONS, Conceptions in England and Wales: 2023).

Stillbirth, infant and maternal mortality

Mortality around birth, latest available period
Measure	Area and period	Figure	Source
Stillbirth rate	England and Wales, 2025	3.9 per 1,000 total births	ONS
Stillbirth rate	Scotland, 2025	4.2 per 1,000 live and still births	NRS
Neonatal mortality (under 28 days)	England and Wales, 2024	3.0 per 1,000 live births	ONS
Infant mortality (under 1 year)	England and Wales, 2024	3.9 per 1,000 live births	ONS
Infant mortality (under 1 year)	Scotland, 2025	3.3 per 1,000 live births	NRS
Maternal mortality	UK, 2022 to 2024	12.80 per 100,000 maternities	MBRRACE-UK

Both the ONS and NRS define a stillbirth as a baby born after 24 or more completed weeks of pregnancy that did not, at any time, breathe or show signs of life. The England and Wales rate was unchanged from 2024. The maternal mortality rate is from MBRRACE-UK's 2026 report: 252 women in the UK died from direct and indirect causes during pregnancy or within 42 days of its end in 2022 to 2024, among 1,969,321 maternities, a rate the report describes as unchanged from 12.82 in 2021 to 2023.

About this data

ONS, Births in England and Wales: 2025, final rates published 8 September 2026. Births occurring in 2025 and registered in England and Wales, including to mothers living elsewhere. Gestation and birthweight come from linking registrations to NHS birth notifications; the linked total (584,589) is slightly lower than the registration total (585,396). The standardised mean age removes the effect of changes in the population's age structure. Next release: May 2027.
NHS England, NHS Maternity Statistics, 2024-25, published 16 December 2025. Deliveries in NHS hospitals in England, 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. Percentages exclude unknowns: method of delivery was unknown for 2.6% of deliveries and method of onset for 26.8%. The 2025-26 edition is scheduled for 24 November 2026.
PHS, Births in Scotland, year ending 31 March 2025, published 25 November 2025, from hospital maternity records (SMR02). Preterm means less than 37 weeks. Next release: November 2026.
NRS, Adoptions, Births, Deaths, Marriages and Civil Partnerships in Scotland, 2025, published 25 August 2026: final figures for events registered in 2025.
NISRA, Registrar General Annual Report 2024: Births, published 20 November 2025, and Quarterly Tables, Quarter 4 2025, published 2 April 2026. NISRA's average ages are simple means of live birth registrations, not standardised.
ONS, Conceptions in England and Wales: 2023 (26 June 2026) and Child and infant mortality in England and Wales: 2024 (11 May 2026).
MBRRACE-UK, Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care 2026, published 10 September 2026. Maternal deaths are classified using the World Health Organization's ICD-MM.

How to cite this page

ShePrep (2026) UK Pregnancy and Birth Statistics. Available at: https://sheprep.com/birth/uk-birth-statistics (accessed: [date]).

When quoting a single figure, please also cite the original release, listed in the sources below.

Frequently asked questions

How many babies are born in the UK each year?

There is no current official UK-wide total. The latest figures by nation are 585,396 live births in England and Wales in 2025 (ONS), 45,067 in Scotland in 2025 (NRS) and 19,416 in Northern Ireland in 2024 (NISRA). Northern Ireland's provisional quarterly tables for 2025 add up to 19,062.

What is the caesarean rate in the UK?

In NHS hospitals in England, 45.1% of deliveries with a known method in 2024-25 were caesareans: 20.0% elective and 25.1% emergency or other (NHS England). In Scotland, 43.5% of live singleton births in 2024/25 were caesareans (PHS). The two use different denominators, so they are not directly comparable.

What is the average age of first-time mothers in the UK?

In England and Wales, the standardised mean age of mothers at their first birth was 29.6 in 2025, up from 28.6 in 2015 (ONS). In Northern Ireland, the average age of first-time mothers was also 29.6, in 2024 (NISRA). For all births, the average age of mothers was 31.1 in England and Wales and 31.4 in Scotland in 2025.

How common are twins in the UK?

In England and Wales in 2025 there were 8,256 twin maternities out of 579,155, a rate of 14.3 per 1,000 women giving birth. Including triplets and above, the multiple maternity rate was 14.5 per 1,000 (ONS). In Scotland, multiple births were 1.4% of maternities in 2025, including 602 twin maternities (NRS).

What percentage of babies are born prematurely in the UK?

In England and Wales in 2025, 7.7% of live births (45,098) were pre-term on the ONS definition of 24 to 36 completed weeks, calculated from ONS counts. In Scotland, 6.8% of live singleton births in 2024/25 were born before 37 weeks (PHS), a rate PHS says has been rising since 2011/12.