FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2840
You asked
Could you please provide data on the following:
Fertility rates by year in 2015-2021 by ethnicity groups (including White British, Other White, Black British, Other Black, Mixed, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese, etc).
Live births numbers by year for 2015-2021 by the same ethnicity group.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Fertility
Unfortunately, we do not hold fertility rates by ethnicity. However, we do hold the following analysis, which may be of interest: Analysis of fertility rates by country of birth of mother. Please see table 5.
Live Births by ethnicity
Ethnicity is not collected at birth registration. Birth registrations and infant deaths are linked to their corresponding NHS birth notification to enable analysis of the ethnicity of the baby. In 2020, we updated the ethnic groups presented in our tables to better align with the 2021 Census. These comprise twelve categories under six broad headings:
| Broad ethnic group | Detailed ethnic group |
|---|---|
| Asian | Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani and Any other Asian background |
| Black | Black African and Black Caribbean and Any other Black background |
| Mixed/ multiple | Mixed/ multiple |
| Any Other ethnic group | Any Other ethnic group |
| White | White British and White Other |
| Not Stated | Not Stated |
Download this table
.xls .csvWe have recently published the following analysis, Births and infant mortality by ethnicity, England and Wales, which provides live births, stillbirths and infant deaths by ethnicity of the baby in England and Wales, 2007 to 2019.
Due to delays in birth registrations with the General Registry Office (GRO) due to the Coronavirus pandemic, our Births publication for 2020 is delayed until October 2021. The confirmed publication date will be released on our release calendar.
As such, the information you have requested for 2020 is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.