Woman having more children than since 1970s

London, Jul 11 (UNI) Women are having more children these days than they had since 1970s, with almost one in four born to foreign mothers, British official figures show.

Each woman now has 1.91 children on average - the highest since 1973 - according to the Office for National Statistics.

As a result the number of births - 690,000 - increased by 20,000 in 2007 compared to the previous year, when there were 1.86 children per woman.

A third of those were born to British mothers and the rest to women originally from overseas.

One factor in the rise is the tendency for foreign-born mothers, particularly from Pakistan and Bangladesh, to have large families.

On average, foreign women have 2.5 children each, rising to almost five for those from Pakistan, and 3.9 from Bangladesh.

Another factor is that women are choosing to have children when they are in their more fertile 20s, rather than delaying until they are in their 30s and 40s.

However, those who do delay are having more children due to improvements in fertility treatment. The figures, which relate to England and Wales, indicate the overall fertility rate has now increased for six successive years.

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