More than four in ten children born last year in England had at least one foreign-born parent, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.
In 2024, there were 594,677 live births recorded in England and Wales, an increase of 0.6 per cent over the previous year, the first rise seen since 2021.
This coincided with an increase in the number of children born with at least one migrant parent in England at 40.4 per cent, compared to 38.2 per cent in 2023. Meanwhile, the percentage of foreign-born parents rose in Wales from 17.5 per cent in 2023 to 19.4 per cent last year.
The release from the ONS also found that 33.9 per cent of all live births in both England and Wales were to non-UK-born women, up from 31.8 per cent in 2023.
The UK’s official statistician found that Indian mothers represented the largest cohort, accounting for 26,146 births last year, or 4.4 per cent. Mothers from Pakistan followed them at 21,524 births, and mothers from Nigeria at 14,671 births.
Mothers from Romania, Bangladesh, Poland, Ghana, Afghanistan, Albania, and Iraq rounded out the rest of the top ten most common countries of origin.
According to the ONS, London maintained its position as the location with the highest percentage of births to at least one migrant parent.
However, the report noted that the increase seen in London last year, at 0.9 per cent, was the smallest increase among any British region. The largest year-over-year increase was observed in the West Midlands, which rose from 37.6 to 41.2 per cent.
At the local authority level, the City of London, the administratively separate home to the British financial services industry within the capital, had the highest percentage of births with at least one foreign parent at 84.4 per cent.
Outside of London, the top area for foreign parents was the multicultural town of Luton — perhaps best known internationally as the home of anti-grooming gang activist Tommy Robinson, at 78.9 per cent.
The report from the ONS comes amid a growing debate surrounding the ethnic composition of Britain and the growing tensions between the native population and migrant communities.
A report earlier this month from Professor Matt Goodwin — previously a critic of right-wing mass migration opponents who has become a leading voice against the demographic displacement of Britons — warned that, on current trends, the native white British population will become a minority in their own homeland by the year 2063.
Commenting on the ONS figures, Professor Goodwin noted on Tuesday: “In 2003, 18.6 per cent of all births in England and Wales were to mothers not born in the UK. In the very latest data, released today, it’s nearly doubled to 34 per cent.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer broke with liberal open borders orthodoxy in a May speech, in which he said that not only had mass migration failed to deliver on its promises of economic growth, but it also put the UK at risk of becoming an “island of strangers“.
Yet, following pressure from his leftist base, Starmer said last week that he now regrets the speech.
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