You asked
Please can you help provide the following information:
1) Total number of births per year in the UK (2012-2017 projected).
2) Average spend on infant durables (e.g., crib, stroller, car seat, monitor, etc.) in a baby's first year or life.
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request on the number of births in the UK 2012 to 2015. The number of UK births is published on the ONS website in Vital Statistics: Population and Health Reference Tables: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables
Number of live births in the United Kingdom, 2012 to 2015.
2015 - 777,165
2014 - 776,352
2013 - 778,803
2012 - 812,970
Sources: Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
Births statistics for England and Wales are available on the ONS website (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/birthsummarytables).
Birth statistics for Scotland are available from National Records of Scotland (http://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/births/births-time-series-data)
Birth statistics for Northern Ireland are available from Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (http://www.nisra.gov.uk/demography/default.asp8.htm).
Other special extracts and tabulations of deaths data for England and Wales are available (subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement of costs, where appropriate). You do not need to make a Freedom of Information request and can contact the team directly at: vsob@ons.gov.uk.
The total number of projected births in the UK is 791,000 for 2016-17.
The Living Costs and Food Survey does collect some information on infant durables. However, it is not possible for us to say what spending a household makes within the first year of a child's life, as we do not know who the expenditure is for.
There are two variables that relate to infant durables:
CC3222t - baby equipment excluding prams and pushchairs (e.g. carrycot, car seat, potty).
CC3223t - prams, pram accessories and pushchairs
In the Family Spending release, these are reported on in Table A1 under Section 12.2 (12.2.4 and 12.2.5 respectively).
Table A1 reports the average weekly expenditure and total weekly expenditure for these two items. However, it is important to note that this is the average and total weekly expenditure for all households i.e. it includes households with no children.