Registration type (4 categories)

A birth within marriage or civil partnership is that of a child born to parents who were lawfully married or in a civil partnership either:

• at the date of the child’s birth
• when the child was conceived, even if they later divorced or were granted a civil partnership dissolution or the father or second parent died before the child’s birth

Births occurring outside marriage or civil partnership may be registered either jointly or solely. A joint registration records details of both parents and requires them both to be present. A sole registration records only the mother’s details. In a few cases a joint registration is made in the absence of the father or second parent if an affiliation order or statutory declaration is provided. Information from the birth registration is used to determine whether the mother and father or second parent jointly registering a birth outside marriage or civil partnership were usually resident at the same address at the time of registration. Births with both parents at the same address are identified by a single entry for the informant’s usual address, while different addresses are identified by two entries.

Country of birth of father (5 categories)

A listing of which countries are included in each of the groupings can be found in the ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/parentscountryofbirth[Parents’ country of birth release]

Country of birth of mother (5 categories)

A listing of which countries are included in each of the groupings can be found in the ONS https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/datasets/parentscountryofbirth[Parents’ country of birth release]

Age of father (11 categories)

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 contained provisions enabling two females in a same-sex couple to register a birth from 1 September 2009 onwards. For births registered under this Act, the age of second parent has been included with age of father. Given the relatively small number of births registered to same sex couples, this has a negligible impact on the statistics.

Age of mother (9 categories)