Number of women over 40 giving birth trebles in past two decades | Mail Online

he number of births to older mothers has almost trebled in 20 years and continues to rise, figures showed today.

In 2009, there were 26,976 live births to women aged 40 and over, almost treble the 9,336 in 1989 and almost double the 14,252 in 1999.

Among those aged 35 to 39, there were 114,288 births in 2009, a rise of 41per cent on the 81,281 in 1999.

The data, for England and Wales, was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It showed a 0.3 per cent drop in the overall number of live births, from 708,711 in 2008 to 706,248 in 2009 - the first yearly drop since 2001.

Compared with 2008, the birth rate for women aged under 35 has fallen, the data showed.

Among those aged under 20, there was a 2.3 per cent drop, from 26 live births per 1,000 women in 2008 to 25.4 in 2009.

Rates for women aged 20 to 24 and 25 to 29 fell by 1.6 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively, while for women aged 30 to 34 there was a 0.4 per cent decline.

But rates for women aged 35 to 39 and 40 to 44 continued to rise in 2009, by 1.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.

These changes mean the typical age at which a woman becomes a mother for the first time has risen to 29.4 in 2009, compared with 29.3 in 2008 and 28.4 in 1999.
In 2009, women had an average of 1.95 children each, down from 1.97 children in 2008.