Daily dazzling dawn understand that Bangladeshis are one of the largest growing communities in the UK, by the highest birth rate.According to official figures, the number of children born to British moms has decreased by one-quarter during the last 15 years. The number of babies born to British-born mothers fell from 538,000 in 2008 to 403,000 last year, the lowest on record, according to the Office for National Statistics. In contrast, births to Indian mothers have increased by 73%, West Africans by 37%, and new EU members like Poland and Romania by 32.6%.

Today, one in every 13 (7.9%) children born in the UK have parents from India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, compared to one in every 20 two decades ago.

The shifts reflect a declining fertility rate, particularly amongst British-born parents. Although this is offset by the bigger families of migrant populations and the surge in net migration over the past five years, the overall fertility rate is still at a record low.The total fertility rate dropped to 1.44 children per woman in 2023, its lowest value since records began in 1938. This is well below the 2.1 children per woman that is considered necessary to maintain a stable population and replace the older generation in developed countries without migration.

The rising number of births to foreign parents could help ease fears that the UK will face a labour supply crunch as its population ages and retirees out-pace the rate at which new workers come into jobs.

But Sir Keir Starmer has committed to reducing net migration and is sticking with Rishi Sunak’s measures to crackdown on foreign worker and student visas. This is expected to cut net migration from a record high of 764,000 in 2022 to around 250,000 to 300,000 a year.Nuni Jorgensen, a researcher at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory, said that even while migrant parents were having more children than UK-born families, they still were not having enough to replace the number of older people dropping out of the workforce.

Some 37.3 per cent of live births were to parents where either one or both were born outside the UK, increasing from 35.8 per cent in 2022, according to the ONS data.London had the greatest proportion of births to parents born outside of the UK, accounting for two thirds (67.4 per cent) of all live births. The highest percentages were seen in Brent, Westminster, Newham and Harrow, at more than 80 per cent of births. By contrast, it was as low as 4.4 per cent in Staffordshire Moorlands.Most advanced and developing countries face similar pressures of high immigration but low fertility rates. In the EU, birth numbers fell to a record low in 2023, with fertility rates as low as 1.2 children per woman in Italy and Spain.

All advanced economies except Israel have birth rates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, according to the OECD. Meanwhile, more than half of all countries globally have an average number of births per woman below 2.1, according to the UN.

The fall in the birth rate is linked by the ONS to various factors including the introduction of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s, the rise of women in employment and education, and the cost of childcare and housing.

The ONS said that over the past decade, the declining fertility rate was steepest among those aged under 30. Mothers who gave birth to a child in 2023 were on average almost a year older than their 2013 counterparts.

Not feeling ready and not finding the right partner was preventing many millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) who wanted children from trying to have them, according to UCL research. This was compounded by the high cost of bringing up children and pressure to stay in work.

The average weekly price for a full-time childcare place for children under three in the UK is about £300, compared with nearly £430 in inner London, according to a report by children’s charity Coram.

It has meant some couples have taken a conscious decision not to have children. Typical are HGV driver Chris Taylor and dog groomer Jemma Wrathmell who jointly earn an income of about £60,000 but believe the cost of starting a family is too high.

The couple, who live in Wakefield in West Yorkshire, considered having children but Mr Taylor said: “After all our bills and essentials there is no room in the budget to accommodate a child. We don’t see how our finances will get any better within the next few years.”