Posted on 12/08/2007 7:44:44 PM PST by blam
Britain's highest birth rates among migrants
By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:11am GMT 09/12/2007
A baby boom among immigrant families is driving the population to a record high, government figures will show this week.
The figures, from the Office for National Statistics, will reveal that Britain's highest birth rates are in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities, both predominantly Muslim.
The birth rate among women born in Pakistan but living in the UK is three times higher than that among British-born women, the figures will show.
Separate figures due this month will reveal whether Mohammed has overtaken Jack as Britain's most popular name for baby boys.
Last year's ratings showed that Jack remained in first place, chosen for 6,928 babies, but Mohammed - taking into account all of its variant spellings - had overtaken Thomas to lie in second place with 5,991.
The evidence of a rising birth rate underlines last month's official projections, first revealed in The Sunday Telegraph, which showed the population on course to rise to 77 million by the middle of the century, or even 91 million at the highest forecast.
The figures were sharply higher than in previous projections, due to higher forecasts for all three of the factors that affect population: birth rate, net migration, and longevity.
This week, the ONS will release a compendium relating to the 669,531 babies born in England and Wales last year. The total was 3.7 per cent up on the previous year's figure, the fifth successive annual rise.
The fertility rate - the average number of children a woman will bear in her lifetime - has risen to 1.87. Five years ago it reached a low of 1.63, well below the "replacement rate" needed to keep the population stable in the absence of immigration. Since then, a sharp increase in immigration has lifted the birth rate.
This week's breakdown will reveal details including which areas have the highest and lowest birth rates; the average age of parents when their first and subsequent babies are born; the proportion of children born to married and unmarried couples, and the number born to middle-class and working-class parents.
Included in the tables will be figures relating to the country of birth of new parents. A preview of last year's figures shows that 21.9 per cent of live births last year were to mothers born outside the UK, up from 20.8 per cent in 2005.
Of the total 669,531 births last year, 146,956 were to mothers born outside the UK. Among these, 25,948, or 3.9 per cent of total births, were to mothers born in Pakistan or Bangladesh, while 33,689, or five per cent, were to mothers born in Europe.
The figures do not reflect the total number of babies born in Britain's ethnic communities because they exclude those of British-born second-generation migrants.
More than 6,000 of the European mothers were from Poland, while there were also significant numbers of babies born to migrants from the other Eastern European states that joined the European Union in 2004.
Last week the Home Office announced that anyone seeking to enter the UK in order to marry a resident will need to pass an English test before he or she is granted a visa, while the minimum age for spouse visas will rise from 18 to 21.
It also detailed a new points-based immigration system, which will exclude those from outside the EU who do not have skills that Britain needs.
Coming to Smalltown, USA too.
Jack, move over. Welcome, Mohammed!
Enoch Powell.
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