You asked
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request the following information from the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Please may you provide me with:
The total number of babies born in the UK broken down by month within the following timeframes:
March 2018 – February 2019
March 2019 – February 2020
March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
The total number of babies born prematurely in the UK (before the start of the 37th week of pregnancy) broken down by month within the following timeframes:
March 2018 – February 2019
March 2019 – February 2020
March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
The total number of babies born in England broken down by month within the following timeframes:
March 2018 – February 2019
March 2019 – February 2020
March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
We said
Thank you for your request.
We are responsible for the production of life event data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the birth certificate at birth registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Question 1:
The total number of babies born in the UK broken down by month within the following timeframes:
- March 2018 – February 2019
- March 2019 – February 2020
- March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
Answer:
ONS only produces births data for England and Wales, we do not hold this data for the UK.
However, we do have this information for England and Wales. For 2019 births data, please see our annual births characteristics dataset, table 18 contains live births by date which you can use to plot the months to give you the monthly totals.
Additionally, please see table 4 of Provisional births in England and Wales which contains births by month of occurrence up to September 2020. The NHS birth notification figures presented here are based on births that occurred between January and September 2020. The statistics in this release are provisional and are not directly comparable with other releases that are derived using birth registrations, including our main births releases for 2019 and earlier. The data for October to December 2020 will be available when we have finalised and published the annual dataset.
We do not currently hold complete data for 2021.
Question 2:
The total number of babies born prematurely in the UK (before the start of the 37th week of pregnancy) broken down by month within the following timeframes:
- March 2018 – February 2019
- March 2019 – February 2020
- March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
Answer:
Unfortunately, we do not hold the number of babies born prematurely in the UK. However, please see table 8 of our annual births characteristics for annual gestation figures for England and Wales by year which may be of interest to you.
We also hold provisional gestation figures up to 2020 in table 7 of Provisional births in England and Wales.
We do not currently hold complete data for 2021.
Question 3:
The total number of babies born in England broken down by month within the following timeframes:
- March 2018 – February 2019
- March 2019 – February 2020
- March 2020 – February 2021 (if February's data is not yet available, please could you provide this data by month up until the latest available figures)
Answer:
We do not hold analysis showing babies born in England broken down by month covering the entirety of your requested timeframes.
However, we do hold annual an annual total for 2019 for England which can be found in table 1 of the births characteristics dataset.
You may also find Table 4 of Provisional births in England and Wales helpful.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.