Total fertility rate in Greater London

FOI ref: FOI/2022/4698

You asked

I would like to find Total Fertility Rate data for the specific area of Greater London overall, and additionally if available in all of its 32 boroughs, from the most earliest start point available (whichever that may be) to the present day.

I would also like to find data on the birth and death rate of just Greater London as well if available with the earliest start point available to the present day.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Total Fertility Rate for London Boroughs

We hold the following analysis: Births in England and Wales: summary tables - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk). Table 3 shows Total Fertility Rate (TFR) by London borough. Data is available from 2008 to 2021. This is the latest data available. 2022 data will be published in July 2023. We also have explorable datasets on our NOMIS Webservice which provide Nomis - Births by small geographic areas.

Our Birth characteristics publication holds Crude Birth Rate by London borough in table 1 from 2014 to 2020. 2021 data is due to be published in January 2023.

As such, the information you have requested for 2021 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.

Births and deaths in Greater London

We hold the following analysis: Deaths registered in England and Wales. This provides age standardised mortality rate by London Borough from 2006 to 2021.

We also have explorable datasets on our NOMIS Webservice which provide Nomis - Mortality rates and counts of death by selected geography.

We also have the following user requested data sets:

• Age standardised death rates with 95% confidence intervals by sex and underlying cause of death for the London Borough of Greenwich in 2014 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

• Crude death rates for under 18 year olds, by selected local authorities, London, and England, 2016 - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

If the datasets provided do not meet your needs, we can produce bespoke outputs via our user requested dataset. Special extracts and tabulations of mortality and births data are available to order from the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) Customer services team.

This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging Policy.

If you would like to obtain a quote for bespoke work or to discuss your request further, please contact the HAPI Customer Services team at Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.