§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many babies were born to unmarried mothers for whom no name of the father was entered on the birth certificate in each of the last 30 years, or in those years for which figures are available; what the(a) social class and (b) age of the mother at the birth of her first child was in each case; and how many subsequent births, when the name of the father was not entered on the birth certificate of the child, each mother had. [147176]
§ Ruth Kelly[holding answer 12 January 2004]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
808W
Table 1 Live births outside marriage registered by mother alone (sole registrations), by mother's age 1973–2002. England and Wales Age of mother All ages £20 20–24 25–29 30–34 35–39 40+ Mean age Percentage1 1973 31,168 14,408 9,774 3,972 1,825 887 302 22.0 4.6 1974 29,398 13,986 9,144 3,709 1,506 808 245 21.8 4.6 1975 27,986 13,480 8,503 3,503 1,499 750 251 21.8 4.6 1976 26,359 12,631 7,981 3,406 1,416 705 220 21.9 4.5 1977 26,064 12,201 8,066 3,335 1,557 684 221 22.0 4.6 1978 27,835 12,778 8,849 3,558 1.717 718 215 22.0 4.7 1979 31,118 13,712 10,127 4,175 2,026 824 254 22.2 4.9 1980 33,204 14,032 11,340 4,516 2,176 869 271 22.3 5.1 1981 33,758 14,047 11,589 4,700 2,290 878 254 22.4 5.3 1982 36,453 14,453 12,991 5,383 2,298 1,086 242 22.5 5.8 1983 38,417 14,351 14,093 5,819 2,651 1,225 278 22.7 6.1 1984 40,593 14,928 14,876 6,383 2,824 1,269 313 22.8 6.4 1985 44,458 15.872 16,440 7,358 3.146 1,364 278 22.9 6.8 1986 47,822 16,379 17,922 8,246 3,479 1,479 317 23.0 7.2 1987 50,474 16,787 18,944 8,909 3,875 1,609 350 23.1 7.4 1988 53,944 17,098 20,350 10,185 4,320 1,642 349 23.3 7.8 1989 53,537 16.142 20,179 10,399 4.600 1,781 436 23.5 7.8 1990 54,831 16,191 20,135 11,140 5,006 1,933 426 23.7 7.8 1991 54,131 15,249 19.671 11,396 5,398 1,973 444 23.9 7.7 1992 51,472 13,457 18,370 11,421 5.642 2,133 449 24.2 7.5 1993 50,242 12,535 17,476 11,418 5,967 2,336 510 24.5 7.5 1994 49,030 12,007 16,408 11,390 6,204 2,501 520 24.7 7.4 1995 47,916 11,880 15,626 10,864 6,485 2,529 532 24.8 7.4 1996 51,016 12,946 16,245 11,350 6,978 2,891 606 24.8 7.9 1997 50,582 13,223 15,590 11,015 6.997 3,050 707 24.8 7.9 1998 49,960 13,830 14,838 10,672 6,768 3.151 701 24.8 7.9 Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Frank Field, dated 14 January 2004:
809WThe National Statistician has been asked to reply to your request for information on previous and subsequent births of mothers who had a birth registered without a father's name on the birth certificate (a sole registration) in each of the last 30 years. In particular you asked for information on (a) the social class and (b) the mother's age at her first live birth, and for information on how many of subsequent sole registered births the mother had. I am replying in the National Statistician's absence. (147176)Information is readily available, from birth registration records, on sole registration births by age of mother. However under the Population (statistics) Acts 1938 and 1960, information on birth order (that is whether a birth is a first birth, second birth etc.) is not collected at birth registration for women who are not married to the father of the child. Table 1, attached, provides information on the number of sole registrations by age of mother in each of the last 30 years (1973–2002).Similarly only limited information is readily available by social class from birth registration records. Social class of mother and father first became available separately from 1986. Only 10 per cent. of births are coded for social class and for around two thirds of sole registrations there is insufficient occupation data to assign a social class. Table 2 provides a summary of the readily available information on social class for sole registered births, 1986 to 2001. In 2001 the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification was introduced, replacing social class, and from 2002 data are not available by social class.To provide information on age at first live birth and on any subsequent sole registration requires successive birth records to be linked together. This can only be done using the ONS Longitudinal Study, a one per cent. sample of the population in which, since 1971, census records and vital events have been linked together. Extracting this information cannot be done in the time available to answer this Parliamentary Question. I will write to you again in two weeks to let you know whether the information available from this study is of sufficient quality to answer your question. You should note that, as there is currently only 30 years of birth registration records in the study, only a small proportion of women in the sample have a complete birth history that allows identification of sole registrations. It is therefore very unlikely that the last part of your question (on the number of subsequent sole registered births) can yet be answered reliably.
1999 48,203 13,194 14,477 9,936 6,615 3,221 760 24.9 7.8 2000 45,773 12,459 13,919 9,213 6,116 3,309 757 24.9 7.6 2001 43,744 11,669 13,583 8,582 5,875 3,213 822 25.0 7.4 2002 43,129 11,229 13,599 8,133 5,949 3,373 846 25.1 7.2 1All sole registrations as a percentage of all births.
Table 2 Live births outside marriage registered by mother alone, by mother's social class 1986–2001. England and Wales Numbers (thousands) and percentage of all births Social class of mother1 Non manual Manual I II IIIN IIIM IV V Others2 Total Number 1986 0.1 1.9 5.4 1.7 4.3 0.3 34.0 47.8 1987 0.1 2.2 5.7 1.9 4.8 0.4 35.3 50.5 1988 0.1 2.5 6.1 2.3 5.5 0.5 37.0 53.9 1989 0.1 2.8 6.5 2.5 5.7 0.5 35.5 53.5 1990 0.2 2.8 6.8 2.6 5.6 0.5 36.4 54.8 1991 0.1 3.1 6.6 2.4 4.7 0.9 36.4 54.1 1992 0.1 3.1 6.0 2.3 4.3 0.7 35.0 51.5 1993 0.1 2.8 6.1 2.2 4.0 0.8 34.2 50.2 1994 0.1 3.1 5.1 2.3 4.3 0.6 33.6 49.0 1995 0.2 2.7 6.1 2.3 4.6 0.7 31.4 47.9 1996 0.2 3.2 6.1 2.3 4.8 0.9 33.7 51.0 1997 0.2 3.4 6.1 2.4 5.2 0.9 32.4 50.6 1998 0.2 3.4 6.1 2.6 5.5 0.8 31.4 50.0 1999 0.2 3.5 5.8 2.2 5.2 0.8 30.5 48.2 2000 0.2 3.5 5.5 2.0 4.3 0.6 29.7 45.8 2001 0.2 3.2 5.4 1.8 4.6 0.5 28.0 43.7 Percentage of all livebirths 1986 1.4 3.0 6.3 9.2 15.0 11.1 7.4 7.2 1987 1.3 2.8 5.5 8.8 13.8 12.0 8.3 7.4 1988 1.0 2.9 5.0 8.6 13.4 12.0 9.1 7.8 1989 1.2 2.9 5.2 8.9 13.2 11.9 9.6 7.8 1990 1.5 2.6 4.9 8.3 12.0 11.0 9.9 7.8 1991 1.0 2.8 4.7 7.5 10.6 13.1 10.5 7.7 1992 1.0 2.7 4.2 6.9 9.6 9.7 10.2 7.5 1993 1.0 2.4 4.4 7.1 8.9 9.8 10.5 7.5 1994 0.7 2.6 3.6 7.6 9.3 7.9 11.0 7.4 1995 1.6 2.3 4.1 7.1 9.2 8.9 11.5 7.4 1996 1.0 2.5 4.1 7.0 8.8 11.3 12.5 7.9 1997 1.4 2.7 4.4 7.8 9.6 12.2 13.1 7.9 1998 0.9 2.5 4.5 8.0 10.5 10.8 12.7 7.9 1999 1.1 2.6 4.3 7.0 10.0 11.9 12.8 7.8 2000 0.9 2.6 4.4 6.2 8.9 9.8 12.7 7.6 2001 1.1 2.3 4.2 6.2 9.6 9.1 12.1 7.4 1Social class classifications are: non-manual; I professional; II managerial and technical; IIIN skilled occupations (non-manual); manual; IIIM skilled occupations (manual); IV partly skilled occupations; V unskilled occupations; other. 2Includes unemployed, armed forces, students and inadequately described occupations. Note:
Mothers occupation was not recorded before 1986.
Based on a 10 per cent. sample of births.