Births and Fertility
1.12 Population change is determined by the balance of births and deaths combined with the effect of migration. For the South West there have been more deaths than births for every year between 1994/5 and 2004/5, so that the region’s population growth has been entirely the result of in-migration. However, in 2006, for the first time since 1994/5 there were more live births than deaths with 52,300 live births to mothers usually resident in the South West. The number of live births has risen since 2001, reversing a sustained trend of falling numbers.
1.13 The total number of births in a region is affected by the number of women of childbearing age in a population, as well as the number of children born to each woman. Women’s propensity to have children is measured by the fertility rate. In 2006 the South West had 56 births per thousand women aged 15-44, compared to 60 for England. The Total Fertility Rate – effectively the average number of children per completed family – in the South West in 2006 was 1.79, lower than the England average of 1.85 and lower than other English regions except the North East.
1.14 The pattern of childbearing through life has changed over recent years, with a tendency for women to choose to have children later in life. The fertility rate of women in their twenties has fallen, whilst that of those over thirty has risen. Surveys suggest that this is in order to achieve financial security before having children. Age specific fertility patterns in the South West generally follow the England average, but are noticeably lower in those under 20 (22 per 1000 compared to 27 per 1000); the rate for those 25-29 was slightly higher in the South West than for England (101 per 1000 compared to 98 per 1000).
Data on fertility rates by age and region can be found on the ONS website at Birth Statistics: Births and patterns of family building England and Wales (FM1)
