More babies in the UK are being born to mothers from other countries than ever before

Over a quarter of the live births in England and Wales in 2015 were to women born outside of the UK.

As the below image by Statista shows, this figure is the highest level on record, as found by the Office for National Statistics (ONS):

In 2015, there were 192,227 live births to women born outside the UK and 505,588 to UK born women.

The estimated total fertitilty rate for UK-born women was unchanged at 1.76 children per woman in 2015, whereas for non-UK-born women the estimated rated was 2.08, down from 2.10 in 2014.

Elizabeth McLaren, Vital Statistics Outputs Branch for the Office for National Statistics, said:

The rising percentage of births to women born outside the UK is largely due to foreign born women making up an increasing share of the female population of childbearing age in England and Wales.

Part of the reason for this is that migrants are more likely to be working-age adults rather than children or older people. Alongside their increasing share of the population, higher fertility among women born outside the UK has also had an impact.

Poland was the most common country of birth for mothers born outside the UK, followed by Pakistan and India - whereas for fathers it was Pakistan, followed by Poland and India.

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