The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on the number of live births by the mother's country of birth in England and Wales each year. Every time a birth is registered in England and Wales both parents are required to state their places of birth on their child's birth certificate, and this information is then collated to produce these statistics.
In order to make it easier to look at what these data tell us about births in London, and how these have been changing over time, the GLA Demography team has extracted the data which relate to London from the main ONS dataset since 2001 and presented it here in an easily accessible format.
For more information about how the ONS produces these statistics, please visit their website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths
For more information about how we extracted these data and created this report, please this project's Github repository: https://github.com/Greater-London-Authority/births_by_mothers_country_of_birth
Since 2001, the number of live births being recorded in London has changed from 104,162 to 106,129 births per year. The proportion of births which were to mothers who had been born outside the UK has changed from 43% in 2001 to 60% in the most recent year (2024).
In 2024, the region of origin which supplied the largest number of births to non-UK-born mothers in London was Asia with 27,269, followed by the Africa which provided 10,696. The region of origin which has seen the largest change since 2001 is the Asia, which went from 13,489 live births per year in 2001 to 27,269 in 2024.
In 2024, the region with the largest number of births to non-UK-born mothers was London with 63,460 live births (% of all live births in London). By contrast, the region with the lowest number of births to non-UK-born mothers was the Wales with 4,330 live births to non-UK-born mothers, which only represented 16% of all live births in that region.
The data shows that London accounted for 31% of all the births to non-UK-born mothers in England and Wales in 2024, which was a far higher proportion than any other region.
These data also highlight a couple of other interesting comparisons. Firstly, despite being the second largest region in England and Wales in terms of population, London is not the region with the largest number of births to UK-born mothers. Secondly, London is the only region to have relatively large numbers of mothers from every region of the world according to the way in which the ONS has categorised them, including Africa, non-EU European countries (such as Turkey and Russia) and the 'Rest of the World' (which includes the Americas and Oceania).
The data comparing London with England & Wales excluding London and England & Wales as a whole (including London) is provided in the table below:
Total Births - UK Mothers
Total Births - Overseas Mothers
Pre-2004 EU countries
Post-2004 EU accession countries
Rest of Europe
Asia
Africa
Rest of the world
2024
London
42,669
40%
63,460
60%
6,541
6%
7,294
7%
5,585
5%
27,269
26%
10,696
10%
6,075
6%
2024
Rest of England & Wales
350,240
72%
138,138
28%
10,522
2%
23,104
5%
6,787
1%
60,017
12%
30,432
6%
7,276
1%
2024
England & Wales
392,909
66%
201,598
34%
17,063
3%
30,398
5%
12,372
2%
87,286
15%
41,128
7%
13,351
2%
Births by Mother's Country of Birth by London Borough
