Mothers in England and Wales are now older than EVER

Mothers in England and Wales are now older than EVER

Mothers are now older than they have ever been, official figures published today show. 

The average age of mothers in England and Wales reached a record high of 30.7 years in 2019.

It stayed at 33.6 years for fathers – which was a record high, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The government agency - the Office for National Statistics (ONS) - show the average age of parents has been rising consistently since the 1970s. 

The data published also revealed a 2.5 per cent drop in births in 2019; 640,370 birth registrations down from 657,076 in 2018.

An ONS report in December last year revealed nearly half of women do not start a family until they are in their 30s. 

Some 48 per cent of the female population in England and Wales had no children by their 30th birthday in 2018 – the highest on record.

It is a stark contrast from their mothers' generation born in the 1940s. Eight in 10 of them had at least one baby by that age. 

The ONS report today showed the age group with the most registered births in 2019 was 30-34 year olds, with a total of 67,947 babies were born to a mother and father of that age.

Second place was the age group 35 to 39, with 40,022 babies born to parents in this age bracket.   

The data looks at whether babies were born to parents who were married or in a civil partnership.

Slightly more than half (51.5 per cent) of all births were within a marriage or civil partnership, according to the data. 

Women aged between 30 and 34 and men between 25 and 29 had the most babies born outside a marriage or civil partnership. 

 

 



 

 

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