Among the nations of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland had the highest number of live births per 1,000 in 2021, at , followed by England at , Wales at , and Scotland at . The crude birth rate has fallen for all nations of the UK when compared with 1971, while Northern Ireland has consistently had the highest number of live births per 1,000 people.
Long-term birth trends
After reaching a postwar peak of births per 1,000 people, the UK's crude birth rate has declined considerably, falling to a low of just births per 1,000 people in 2020. In that year, there were just live births, compared with over in 1964. Additionally, the average age of mothers at childbirth in the UK has been steadily increasing since the mid-1970s. In 1975, for example, the average age at which mothers gave birth was years, compared with in 2021.
Millennials overtake Boomers as the largest generation
Due to the large number of births that happened in the years following the Second World War, the generation born during this time were called Baby Boomers, and until 2020 were the largest generation in the UK. Since that year, the Millennial generation, born between 1981 and 1996, has been the largest generational cohort. In 2023, there were almost million Millennials, just over 14 million Generation X (born between 1965 and 1980), and around million Baby Boomers. Generation Z, the generation immediately after Millennials, numbered approximately million in this year.