Source: Office for National Statistics – Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages
Notes:
- The chart shows the number of live births and deaths in the United Kingdom from 1930 to 2021.
- For England and Wales, birth statistics are based on the number of births occurring in the year, while Scotland and Northern Ireland statistics relate to the number of births registered in the year. In England and Wales, where a birth is registered too late to be included in the count for the year of occurrence, it will be included in the count for the following year.
- Death statistics are based on the number of deaths registered in the year, rather than deaths occurring in a calendar year.
| Key dates | |
|---|---|
| 1939 - 1945 | Second World War |
| 1961 | Introduction of the contraceptive pill |
| 1967 | Family Planning Act Made contraception readily available through the NHS. |
| 1967 | Abortion Act Legalised abortion under 28 weeks free on the NHS. |
| 2020 | COVID-19 pandemic January 2020 saw the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the UK. |
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