Average Age of Mums Rises in England and Wales

Mums in England and Wales are older than ever before, according to new data released this week.

The average age of women giving birth hit 30.9 in 2021 - 2022 data hasn't been released yet.

Data from the Office of National Statistics, going back to the 1940's, shows this is nearly a whole five years older than in the 1970s. In 1973, the average age of a mother was 26.4 years, but in recent years there have been double the number of 40 year olds having babies than teenagers, showing a stark change in trends.

Britain's birth rate is also at a record low, with stillbirths increased and fertility rates decreased compared to previous years. We'll cover this in another article.

Why has the average age of mums risen in England and Wales?

There are so many reasons why women are deciding to start families later in life, all of them completely valid and understandable. As women's rights have improved and attitudes towards the 'place' of a woman have become more progressive, more women have opted to focus on career development and education before having babies. It's simply no longer the norm or expectation that women will marry straight out of school and start a family whilst their husband is the breadwinner, nor is it possible for many familes with the cost of living these days!

The introduction of contraception has certainly helped women to be able to pursue what they want in life, leaving them able to prioritise their earning potential before taking the steps to becoming a mother when they feel ready. Women who may have struggled to become pregnant in the past can also now more easily access IVF and other fertility treatments. These can take time and repeated efforts, so a woman who meets her life partner in her late 20's expecting to be pregnant quite quickly, may end up only having her first in her mid 30's after years of medical investigations and rounds of IVF.

Another factor behind this development could be the steady increase in the costs of living and childcare over the decades; even with the introduction of government-subsidised childcare. It may take years for a couple to feel financially comfortable, something we're sure you'll all agree with.

Fundamentally, there are so many reasons why a woman may choose to start a family 'later' than society used to deem typical, all of these reasons being valid.

Comments from 'older' mums in our community...

We asked the mums in our online community group, why did they wait to start a family? By 'older', this is such a tricky definition, but we will be saying over 30 for the sake of the ONS data finding that the average age of a mum was 30.9! Don't worry if you're a mum over 30, we're not calling you old.

Donna told us: "I'm 30 and have recently had my newborn and my partner is 32. We have chosen to wait as we wanted to feel secure enough to start a family, we have a mortgage and a strong committed relationship and it just felt right. We also wanted to experience as much of our lives with not having to be responsible for anyone else, so we went abroad a few times a year, travelled around the uk. Also for me I love running so wanted to complete a couple marathons first which I did, personally I wanted to feel “ready” before bringing a bundle of joy into the world and our lives. I now couldn’t imagine our lives without our little man and it was the best decision for us!"

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