British children born out of wedlock or in some form of registered partnership outnumbered those born to families in 2021 for the first time in the island’s history. This is according to the latest data processed by the Office for National Statistics (Ons) on the subject, relating to the population of England and Wales (over 90% of the total UK population), data released by the media today .
In 2021, almost 625,000 births were recorded, of which more than 320,000 (51.3%) were from women who were not married or in another officially certified form of partnership. In the meantime, the average age of new mothers has risen from 30.7 to almost 31 years; while that of fathers remains at 33.7 years as reported in 2020.
It is the first time since 1845, that is, since there has been a collection of data at the national level, that children born outside of marriage are becoming the majority, the Ons notes. It should be emphasized that this is a consequence of the decline in marriages celebrated in the Kingdom, which has been going on for several years (similar to other “secularized” Western countries) and the increase in more or less stable unofficial cohabitation phenomena registered couples.
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