(ANSA) - LONDON, JAN 19 - British children born out of wedlock or any form of registered civil union exceeded those born within a family for the first time in the history of the island in 2021.
This is revealed by the latest data processed by the Office for National Statistics (Ons) relating to the population of England and Wales (over 90% of the total population of the United Kingdom), data released today by the media.
In 2021, there were almost 625,000 births recorded, over 320,000 of which (51.3%) were registered by unmarried women or united in another type of partnership certified by the authorities.
Meanwhile, the average age of new mothers has risen from 30.7 to just under 31;
while that of fathers remains indicated at 33.7 years as in 2020.
It is the first time since 1845, i.e. since there was a collection of data on a national basis, that children born outside of conjugal unions of any kind become the majority, notes the Ons.
Emphasizing how it is a consequence of the decline that has been going on for several years in marriages celebrated in the Kingdom (similarly to what is happening in other 'secularized' Western countries) and of the increase in more or less stable cohabitation phenomena of unofficially registered couples.
(HANDLE).