Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many babies were born in England each year since 1945.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

Lord Taylor of Goss Moor

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

27 November 2023

Dear Lord Taylor,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking a) how many babies were born in England each year since 1945 (HL435) and b) how many babies were registered in Cornwall in each year since 1945 (HL436).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes statistics on births registered in England. Birth statistics are based on year of registration, rather than date of birth.

Table 1 of the attached dataset provides numbers of live births registered in England from 1945 to 2022, and stillbirths registered from 1981 to 2023. Data on stillbirths registered in England prior to 1981 are not available.

Table 2 of the attached dataset provides numbers of live births and stillbirths registered in Cornwall from 1981 to 2022. Figures for Cornwall are based on the mother’s usual residence. Data on the mother’s usual residence prior to 1981 is not available.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond