LAST year saw the fewest babies born in England and Wales for 20 years.
Official figures show there were 605,479 births in 2022, down from 625,000 in 2021.
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It was the lowest figure since 2002, when there were 596,122.
That was the year Blazin’ Squad were top of the UK charts with hit single ‘Crossroads’ – and the second Harry Potter film had just come out.
James Tucker, from the Office for National Statistics, said: “The annual number of births in England and Wales continues its recent decline.
“2022 recorded the lowest number of live births seen for two decades.”
The number has been tumbling since 2012, with only a small rise in 2021 after 2020’s total was so low because of Covid lockdowns.
Experts say people now spend more time in education and building their careers so they start families later and end up having fewer kids.
Cost of living troubles may also be putting off would-be parents.
James Kirkup, director of the Social Market Foundation think-tank, said: “There are lots of reasons people are delaying or deciding not to have babies.
“High housing costs, expensive childcare, deciding to focus on their careers and themselves, even fears about climate change.
“The long-term answer is to address those worries and make it feel easier and less scary to have kids.
“A population with lots of old people and not many children means an unstable economy and an unhappy society.
“Politicians must do more to make it easier for people who want to have children to do so, without ever telling them they must do so – this should always be a matter of choice.”
Birth numbers’ recent peak was recently in 2012 at nearly 730,000, while the all-time high was a staggering 957,782 in 1920 after World War 1.
The ONS figures also showed that a record three in 10 babies were born to mums from outside the UK.
The proportion was 30.3 per cent, up from 28.8 per cent in 2021.
Foreign-born mums were most likely to be from India – taking the title from Romania the year before.