Parenting: Age Of First Time Mothers Shows A Sharp Increase

Women who are leaving it later in life to have children has increased the Office of National Statistics figures show, with the fertility rate in all age groups, other than the under 20s, have risen during 2003.

The largest increases in fertility rates have been recorded in women aged 35-39 and 40 and over, with over 621,000 live births in England and Wales in 2003 - an increase of 4.3% on the 2002 figure, the largest annual percentage rise since 1979.

The number of women having children in their 30s and 40s has climbed steadily over the last 20 years at a time when the overall birth rate has been dropping, in 2003, the fertility rate for women aged 35-39 and over 40 both increased almost 8%.

Later pregnancies are particularly evident among the wealthier social classes, where women persue a career before embarking on motherhood. The only draw back to later parenting is that as a woman gets older their fertility declines.

The figures also show for the first time in over ten years that the number of younger women having children has risen, women aged 25 to 29 were most likely to have had a baby during the year. The rate among this group was almost 10% an increase of 5.2% on 2002, and the first rise since 1990.

The birth rate among women aged 30-34 increased by 5.6% to 9.5%

The average age of pregnancy is now 29.4 years, with the average age for first time mothers rising to 27.4 years.

Other figures produced by the ONS show that the average number of babies per women was 1.73 babies, an increase on the average of 1.65 children in 2002, which in turn was up from 1.63 in 2001.

The figures also show that over 41% of births were outside marriage in 2003, Wales became the first country in the UK where more than half of births were outside marriage.

Source Office of National Statistics