“Births outside marriage increased year by year since the early 1970s. Over the past 10 years the proportion has risen from 12% to 41% across England and Wales as a whole.
It passed 50% in north-east England in 2000 and last year stood at 53.5%. The north-west was not far behind on 48%, but in London - where a higher proportion of young mothers were from the Muslim community - only 34.5% of children were born outside marriage.”