06-07-2025
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: The areas where rates of foreign-born mothers have TRIPLED in a decade - find out what the situation is in your area
There are now more foreign-born mothers than British mums in dozens of authorities, MailOnline can reveal.
Nationwide in 2024, women hailing from outside the UK accounted for 33.9 per cent of live births – up from just below a quarter in 2008.
Yet the rate exceeded half per cent in 55 councils across England and Wales.
This is twice as many as in 2013, according to an Office for National Statistics (ONS) report.
Newcastle-under-Lyme recorded the biggest jump, MailOnline found, going from 5.8 per cent in 2013 to 18.6 per cent last year.
The share also tripled in Halton (from 4.2 per cent to 13.1 per cent) and Knowsley (4.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent).
All but 24 of 305 councils saw rates increase, including 27 where the proportion has doubled at the very minimum.
In Waltham Forest, 63.7 per cent of babies born in 2013 were to mothers hailing from outside the UK. This fell to 50.5 per cent in 2024.
India (4.4 per cent of all live births) is the most common country of origin for non-UK born mothers.
Pakistan (3.6 per cent), Nigeria (2.5 per cent), Romania (2 per cent) and Bangladesh (1.7 per cent) round out the top five.
Eight of the ten areas with the highest rates of babies born to foreign mothers were in London.
Harrow and Brent (both 77.1 per cent) topped the table, ahead of Newham, Ealing and Hounslow.
Slough and Luton ranked eighth and ninth, respectively.
The analysis comes after MailOnline revealed last month that British mothers are now outnumbered by foreign-born mums at nearly one in seven maternity units.
At Northwick Park Hospital, in Harrow, 84.2 per cent of all live births in 2023 were to non-UK mothers.
When broken down into ages, UK-born mothers have the second-highest rate of births under 20 years old (2.9 per cent), behind Romanian mothers (4.8 per cent).
Between 25-29 was the majority age group for Pakistani and Bangladeshi mothers, while for UK, Polish and Romanian mothers it was 30-34.
Polish mothers have the highest rates of motherhood between 40-44 (10.2 per cent).
The ONS data also showed that two-fifths of babies last year had at least one parent who was born in another country.
In total, there were 594,677 live births in England and Wales in 2024.
This represented the first overall increase since 2021.
Births remain at historically low levels, however, with 2024 ranking as the third lowest total since 1977.
Greg Ceely, ONS head of population health monitoring, said: 'In 2024, the annual number of births in England and Wales reverses the recent trend of declining births, recording the first increase seen since 2021.
'Despite this overall rise, the number of births to mothers under 30 fell, as people continue to put off having children until later in life.
'The largest decrease is seen amongst those under 20 years old, which fell by almost 5 per cent, while the number of mothers aged 35-39 grew the most.
'A couple of other long-term trends are continuing, such as seeing around half of live births within marriage or civil partnership, and an increase in births to non-UK-born mothers.'
It comes after Keir Starmer unveiled a crackdown on immigration last month, warning that failure to control the system risked turning Britain into an 'island of strangers'.
Downing Street was forced to deny angry comparisons from MPs that it was an echo of Enoch Powell's infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
Scrambling to blunt the threat of Reform, Sir Keir vowed to give Brits what they had 'asked for time and time again' as he announced a package to 'take back control of our borders'.
Under Number 10's long-awaited blueprint to curb immigration, skills thresholds will be hiked and rules on fluency in English toughened. Migrants will also be required to wait 10 years for citizenship rather than the current five and face deportation for even lower-level crimes.
Policymakers estimate the government's package will bring down annual inflows by around 100,000.
Yet official figures show immigration was already tumbling from record highs before Labour took power.
Official figures showed net long-term inflows were 431,000 in the year to December, compared with 860,000 across 2023.
The Tories said that the ONS data demonstrated their curbs were already having an impact – although the level in 2024 was still roughly equivalent to the population of Leeds.
Migrants arriving in Britain play a vital role in supporting key infrastructure, such as the services industry and the NHS.
Experts say they also may play a role in bolstering the UK's freefalling birth rate.
Fertility rates have plunged to their lowest levels since records began in the 1930s.
The stark drop has triggered doomsday warnings about population collapse, which demographers believe will devastate Western economies.
If the downward spiral continues it may leave countries with too few younger people to work, pay tax and look after the elderly.
Demographers claim the spiralling figures mean we may need to become reliant on immigration to prop up our economy.
Women prioritising their education and careers, and couples waiting to have children until later in life have fuelled the trend.
Rising costs, especially the price of childcare and housing, is another factor thought to be putting people off starting families.
Fertility rate statistics were not provided by the ONS in the latest update as mid-year population estimates were not available.
