Births
Birth rates, nationally and locally, have fluctuated over the last century peaking after both World Wars (1920s, 1950s and 1960s) and sharply declining during the 1970s with the advent of birth control. This 1970s decline has led to fewer women of child-bearing age at the end of the 1990s and beginning of 21st century. This has also coincided with social changes such as women choosing to delay motherhood in favour of careers or choosing not to have children at all.
The number of live births in England and Wales increased in 2010 to 722,959 births.
In the long-term Shropshire has seen a gradual decline in the number of live births however between 2002 and 2010 the number of births increased by 5.4%. It is too early to tell if this is the start of a new trend, as live births in 2010 (2,889) have yet to reach the level of the late 1990s, although they surpassed the previous highest figure since the beginning of the century, 2,864 births in 2007.
Further information is available on births and deaths in Shropshire in the information sheet Live births and deaths 2010.
Please follow the link on this page to the Office for National Statistics website for information on national and regional trends in births and deaths.
Please note that many of the facts and figures available on these pages relate to the administrative area covered by the council and therefore exclude Telford and Wrekin.