Births & deaths
Later start and fewer children for families
Completed family size for women born 1920 to 1990, UK
The average age at which women born in 1959 had their first child was 25.7 years. These women are the most recent cohort to have reached the end of their childbearing years. They delayed starting a family by nearly two years compared with the previous cohort (those born 16 years earlier in 1943) when the average age at first birth was 23.8 years.
The average number of children born to a woman by the end of her childbearing years is currently 1.99 based on women born in 1959. Average completed family size has been decreasing from 2.45 children for UK women born in 1935 and is projected to continue to fall.
The decline in family size in recent generations has arisen not just because women are having smaller families but also because the proportion of women not having children has increased. Among women born in 1920, one fifth (21 per cent) were childless at age 45. Trends changed and this reached a low of 9 per cent for women born in 1945. The percentage of women remaining childless then increased for subsequent generations, and is now 18 per cent for women who are just completing their childbearing years.
Mortality rate: by sex, 1901 to 2003, England & Wales
Mortality has been declining in the UK since the 18th century with the largest fall in mortality rates occurring since the 19th century. This is associated with the decline in the impact of infectious diseases, which improved survival rates across all ages including among the very young. Unlike at the start of the 20th century, nowadays only a small minority of deaths occur at younger ages.
Life expectancy at birth for people born in 1851 was 40.2 years for men and 43.6 years for women. Among those born 50 years later, in 1901, life expectancy had increased to 50.3 years for men and 57.0 for women. Improvements were even faster during the first half of the 20th century, with male life expectancy at birth rising to 77.3 years and female to 82.1 years for those born in 1951.
The chance of babies surviving to their first birthday was unchanged between 1851 and 1901 (83 per cent for boys and 86 per cent for girls). Those born in 1951 had a much greater chance of survival with 97 per cent of both sexes surviving to the end of their first year of life.
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