New data reveals that Tower Hamlets saw an increase in births last year, contrasting with the lowest birth rate in England and Wales since 1977. Experts attribute the national decline to factors such as economic uncertainty from the cost-of-living crisis, challenges in finding partners, and a growing number choosing not to have children.

According to the Office for National Statistics, Tower Hamlets recorded 4,151 live births in 2023, slightly up from 4,127 in 2022. Meanwhile, live births across England and Wales dropped to 591,000, marking a historic low. The fertility rate also declined to 1.44 live births per woman, the lowest since records began in 1938.

In Tower Hamlets, the rate was an average of 1.11 births per woman in 2023 – the same as the year before.

Professor Melinda Mills, professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford, said: "People are actively postponing or forgoing children due to issues related to difficulties in finding a partner, housing, economic uncertainty, remaining longer in education and particularly women entering and staying in the labour force."

She added: "Some individuals also actively make the choice to remain childfree.

"However, there is evidence that postponing having children to later ages when the partners are less able to conceive results in increases in involuntarily childlessness as well."

The biggest drops in the overall total fertility rate were in Wales (1.46 to 1.39) and the North West (1.53 to 1.46).

London, the North East and the West Midlands saw the smallest decreases.

The ONS added the fertility rate has declined most sharply for women aged between 20 and 24 and 25 and 29.

Dr Bassel Al Wattar, associate professor of reproductive medicine at Anglia Ruskin University, described the downward trend in birth rate as "worrying yet persistent".

He said it might be explained by the cost-of-living crisis, as well as a reduction in available NHS funding for fertility treatments such as IVF.