Babies in the UK born out of wedlock are now the majority for the first time in history, the Office for National Statistics revealed on Tuesday.
According to ONS, there were 624,828 live births recorded in England and Wales last year, with over 320,000 born out of wedlock, compared to 320,713 born to married parents.
The figures show that 51.3 per cent of live births were born to unmarried women.
This means it is the first time a majority of babies were born out of wedlock since 1845, when records began.
Ten percent of children were born out of wedlock up until 1978.
Dr. James Tucker, the head of health analysis at the ONS, said:
“This follows the long-term trend of declining marriage rates and increasing numbers of cohabiting couples seen in recent decades,” Tucker said.
“However, caution should be taken in interpreting the numbers as we don’t yet know the full impact of the pandemic on marriage and civil partnership statistics,” he added.
Women are now waiting until older ages to give birth, with the majority of babies (372,222) being born to women over thirty years old.
Meanwhile, the number of children born to women under the age of 30 has plummeted to half the rate seen 50 years ago.
Born out of wedlock
The government’s introduction of policies pushing female participation in the workforce rather than the family could be to blame.
As Brietbart notes:
One main area that the government has disadvantaged traditional families has been to levy taxes against individual earnings instead of families as a whole, meaning that families which rely on a single income of £50,000 will take home less money than two salaries of £25,000, thereby incentivizing women to work rather than stay at home with children.
Should the supposedly Conservative government wish, it could make tax allowances transferable to mitigate this impact; however, so far, it has refused even to consider introducing policies to improve family life.
Only lower-income families are eligible to receive marriage allowances from the government, resulting in millions of middle-class women being forced into the workforce to support their families.
The British government’s apparent hostile attitude towards traditional families contrasts with conservative countries in Central and Eastern Europe, like Poland and Hungary, who have implemented pro-family policies to incentivize the re-production of their native populations.
As a result, Hungary has successfully increased both its marriage and birth rates, such as granting lifetime tax-exempt status for women with over four children.
Poland also introduced pro-mother policies, such as a “maternal pension” to show “gratitude and respect” for women raising four or more children.
