Brighton and Hove has the third lowest fertility rate in England and Wales, figures released today show.
The rate – defined as the average number of live children women would expect to have across their childbearing life – has dropped from 0.98 in 2023 to 0.97 in 2024.
The total fertility rate across England and Wales is at 1.41, down from 1.42 the previous year. This is the lowest since comparable data began in 1938, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, although the number has fallen, Brighton’s rate compared to other places has remained much the same over the last 20 years, rarely falling out of the top ten – and having fallen from second lowest in 2022.
For a country’s population to remain stable over time – discounting any impact from migration – the total fertility rate needs to be around 2.1.
The drop in the rate comes despite the number of births in England and Wales increasing slightly last year from 591,072 to 594,677.
But this was offset by a jump in the size of the overall population, meaning fertility rates fell overall.
The figures come just a day after Scotland’s total fertility rate was also confirmed to have dropped to a new record low, falling from 1.27 in 2023 to 1.25 in 2024.
The latest rate for Northern Ireland is due to be published later this year.
Greg Ceely, ONS head of population health monitoring, said: “Fertility rates in England and Wales have been in overall decline since 2010.
“The total number of births increased last year, for the first time since 2021, but this was offset by population growth.
“As a result, fertility rates fell overall, and are now at the lowest rates on record.”
The ONS figures show that the West Midlands had the highest regional fertility rate in 2024, at 1.59, while south-west England had the lowest (1.31).
Most regions saw a drop in the total fertility rate, with only two – London and the West Midlands – seeing a year-on-year increase.
At a local authority level, Luton in Bedfordshire had the highest total fertility rate in 2024 (2.00 children per woman), followed by Barking and Dagenham in London (1.99), Slough in Berkshire (1.96) and Sandwell in the West Midlands (1.91).
The City of London had the lowest rate (0.32), followed by Cambridge (0.95), Brighton and Hove in East Sussex (0.97) and Islington in London (0.99).
Newport had the highest local rate in Wales (1.64) while Cardiff had the lowest (1.19).
Hey! I said this weeks ago! Well, it’s a big reason why we are seeing the need to reduce school PAN numbers in primary schools, and then we are likely to see the same shrinkage in the 2030s, as those cohorts progress and grow up. Furthermore, Brighton has been consistently among the lowest fertility areas for 20 years, so we cannot attribute this to a short-term blip; it’s an ongoing trend.
Then the wider knock-on will be seen in labour markets, risking shortages such as in health and social care, housing demands will shift, and even council funding. It makes for a difficult situation, with no clear or single solution. Housing stock is a piece, but it’s not a complete answer.
Further proof that successive Labour & Green Administrations have given up supporting families, with the closure of primary schools and a lack of affordable housing, but hey, let’s continue to build flats that are left empty or filled by students. And then we have Cllr Sankey rolling out her standard ‘we are a city of sanctuary’ statement every week. Great! – but we need to support home grown families foremost.
Cllr Lyons, this is simply wrong, yet again. I’ll include some pretty icons this time to keep your attention.
📊 Fact check 1: Brighton’s fertility rate has been among the lowest in England & Wales long before recent councils. This is a national demographic trend, not something invented by Labour or the Greens.
📊 Fact check 2: School closures follow low birth numbers. They don’t cause them. You can’t run half-empty schools without harming quality or wasting scarce budgets. That’s basic.
📊 Fact check 3: Housing matters, but it isn’t the driver of ultra-low fertility. Spain, Italy and Poland have far cheaper housing than Brighton, yet also have fertility rates around 1.2. A certain previous, now irrelevant, government did far more to damage that bit – remind me how many houses were actually built locally by the conservatives?
📊 Fact check 4: Migration cushions the problem, it doesn’t cause it. Without it, Brighton’s working-age population (and council tax base) would collapse even faster, causing much more trouble.
You’re not very good at this political point-scoring, Councillor.
I won’t be quoting your thoughts with my interviews with the National papers tomorrow
I thought councillors were meant to listen..
Ah yes, Ivan, the “I’m doing a national paper interview” line as if that somehow disproves anything I’ve said. Great logic.
For the record, I’ve appeared on national TV and radio and was a regular contributor to a professional national publication. But here’s the difference: none of that changes the facts. You don’t win debates by boasting about platforms. You win them with evidence.
Something, you’re clearly not very good at. Good luck with your interview tomorrow. Try not to make it into an easily deconstructible rant.
“For the record, I’ve appeared on national TV and radio and was a regular contributor to a professional national publication.”
As if that supports or proves anything that you’ve said
That’s kind of my point, Duffer. Ironically, you’re agreeing with me.
Letters page in The Beano most likely…
Conservatives: “we’ve had enough of experts”
The rest of us: “yes, we can tell.”
‘we are a city of sanctuary’ . Sanctuary for whom? Certainly not hard working families. I will leave it to your imagination or statistics to fill in the numbers.
Another pointless sound bite from my local councillor. You can’t have it both ways. If you want students out of HMOs (to my knowledge, not a particular problem in your ward) then you need to build student flats. This is a university town that gets a lot of income from their existence.
And hypocrisy from the party of Thatcher that sold off social housing with no mechanism for replacement.
Where were Conservative policies on regulated rents, limits on foreign property investment, taxes on wealth to fund social care?
Meanwhile
1 in 4 family court cases in Brighton is not the biological father.
It also has the highest false accusations of domestic abuse in the country. With an 800% rise for legal aid. No connection obviously.
87% of young offenders are fatherless.
Every father should request a paternity test as the average request on the national DNA database is that 33% are not . Let alone those not tested .
Estimates are at 50 %
About time perjury is punishable in family court
Eh, I don’t recognise most of your statistics. Where’d you get your data from? Can you share?
I remember you spoke about paternity tests at births as a mandatory thing before. Some interesting arguments against it.
Google it Benjamin.
Good luck very sad statistics tbh
There are several companies in Brighton including who’s,your daddy
75% of allegations false
85% of those making them are cluster b personalities
Brad Pitt has spent £10 million in family court.
Doesn’t get to see his children when he wants to .
So not much luck for poorer fathers .
97% custodial care awarded to the mother even if lying
No perjury charges in family court so solicitor will advise you have nothing to lose .
Yes, I did. Which is why I don’t recognise them, Rupert. I am giving you a chance to show me your working. Studies suggest misattributed paternity is around 1–3% in general populations, not 25%. Your other claims are largely repeating US activist talking points and commercial DNA testing marketing claims, not UK evidence.
Which I why I ask again, what is your source?
1in 5 court cases in the UK on average is not the biological father. That’s why courts pay for it and not the parents.
But Brighton has been reported that it’s 1 in 4 the highest in the country.
I had to have court ordered DNA.
I got 3 quotes roughly £150
The court not you told me I won’t need to pay as it’s court done through cafcaff
I am a father. But then I was handed a s7 report not even court ordered with defamatory and libel accusations.
This i have forwarded to ministry of justice fraud team in London.
My MP took up my case but we went into COVID.
She had me falsely arrested too .
Fact finding hearing found no finding
Police investigation found nothing to support her accusations.
I have asked the CPS now to investigate her and the fake s7 report for contempt
See Bruce Anthony Hyman is a British lawyer and former radio and TV producer. A barrister by profession, in 2007 Hyman was the first person in his profession in 800 years[1] to be incarcerated for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
For the third time, what is your source? And the other parts of your experience…it sounds incredibly difficult, and I wish you best navigating it.
~33% is the proportion of tests where the testing party/partner is not the biological father, but in England the rate in the general population hovers pretty consistently round 1-2%. I think if you have got to a point where it seems plausible to you that half the population have a different father than the one named it suggests you’ve become a little careless in your thinking.
For what it’s worth I work in a domain that involves regular familial DNA testing (albeit for reasons unrelated to contesting paternity in any direct sense) and although misattributed paternity obviously does happen, it is really pretty unusual. Most it’s ever been across an annual period for us is 3%. Inferring that it must be 33%+ from the rates in testing clinics is like inferring from the rate of malignancy in an oncologist’s waiting room that 1 in 3 people at any given time must have cancer. People using paternity testing services are by definition a population pre-filtered by the fact that almost everyone in that group has either proof of or good reason to suspect a paternity fraud.
There are plenty of families wanting children, they have just reduced NHS funding for IVF from three rounds to one in Sussex with little consultation. The decision of course being made by a mainly male group. Women wait 1 year for referral, 6 months to be seen by the NHS for fertility to be told to go away and try for another year or so, they then wait a further 8 or so months for the one IVF cycle which is unlikely to work statistically. The NHS investigation of fertility is amongst the poorest in the world with other countries trying to identify a route cause prior to treatment, the NHS don’t do this. They send people for IVF which is enormously expensive, the reduction of the 3 cycles to 1 tried to counteract this but it’s a plaster over something that could be solved more cheaply. Many women have to fund privately. All of this takes years and of course the one thing you need is time. By the time women get answers it’s too late, I know some women who have had years of fertility issues solved by a single private prescription costing 8 euros the NHS don’t even provide it. It’s all happening behind closed doors and no one cares because it’s a ‘womens issue’ even though its not. Fertility is vastly under funded and under researched this leaves to devastating consequences mentally, physically, emotionally for families. If they want people to have families they should help people to have families. The way people are treated in fertility care would not happen in any other medical arena, it is a medical problem. Imagine going to a heart specialist with serious issues to be diagnosed with unexplained heart problems. Women and men go through this every day in the UK.
The Case for Compulsory DNA Testing at Birth to Confirm Paternity: Ethical, Legal, and Social Considerations
June 2025Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration 10(2):70-79
DOI:10.7454/ihpa.v10i2.1148
The article is scholarly and theoretical; it explores the ethical and policy debate around compulsory DNA testing at birth. It does not back up your numerical claims about paternity fraud in Brighton. It may help articulate arguments for or against mandatory testing, but it doesn’t validate your statistical assertions.
Paternity fraud sparks push for mandatory DNA testing in SADC
Agreed. And if a parent weaponises the children against another parent through Parental Alienation Syndrome they should forfeit any child support from the parent they deny contact with. This doesn’t just involve the non-resident parent being prevented from seeing their children, the resident parent will cook up a feud against their entire family on that side so the poor weaponised child never sees uncles, aunts, grandparents or cousins again. This is because the resident parent cannot afford for their psychological programming of the children to be undermined by the alienated family side saying anything nice about the alienated parent. UK is lagging far behind the US in recognising this form of child abuse and legislating for it. The greatest tragedy of all is that most of the time this wicked behaviour is purely for the convenience of the resident parent who no longer wants to have to interact with or see their ex, irrespective of how the relationship ended.
All of which also has a knock on effect on the birth rate, making men in particular, twice as cautious about procreating and who they procreate with. All the horror stories are now coming to light which used to be buried via a secret family court system which almost always favours the mother, no matter what she gets up to.
The evidence shows that low fertility rates in the UK are overwhelmingly linked to economic pressures and social trends, but yes, it’s not unreasonable to say that the perception of a biased family court system certainly makes men think twice.
Benjamin
Read your reply
You clearly don’t care about best interest of children or justice.
Fo all I know or we is that you probably sitting in a bus shelter more concerned about calling out people personally.
For that reason .. have a good day hope your going somewhere nice
You saying that doesn’t make it true, unfortunately, Rupert. I prefer a pragmatic approach to these things, using research and data where possible, because that is the best approach to children or justice compared to emotive arguments that aren’t supported by reality.
Elaine
Thank you so much
Really appreciate your response.
God bless you 🙏
Conception location: I’m sure the City would be up there!
Thank you, Benjamin, for bringing reason to the discussion, despite the obvious resistance in some parts to actual evidence that extends beyond personal gripes.
Benjamin
My source is heinz
And I’m not bowing to a bus stop keyboard warrior
I lost my son and God took my daughter the year before
Okay, I can see we’re not going to get anywhere. And for what it is worth, I’m sorry for your loss. That is a pain that no-one should ever have to endure.
I spent 8 years investigating
You spent 5 minutes googling everyones response and then in a narcissistic way call them out .
Benjamin calling out a parent to state facts just for your own satisfaction so you can fact check em . Like I said I don’t need to .
I suggest you go down the rabbit hole and you’ll find the evidence I’m stating.
But just a tip . You have to really go down the rabbit hole . And talk with people from the DNA office , ministry of justice. Police . Lawyers . Lawyers outside of family court is a good source. Like Heinz they can be the best because there regulated and governed. Unlike family court you ever heard of parents being convicted of contempt, perjury, perverting the course of justice .
No because it doesn’t happen.
You still not answered about Bruce hyman .
Why did my ex and a trainee barrister hand me a s7 report that says template and then make a full retraction of accusations in the court ordered one ?
Why is my case of perverting the course of justice any different.
My research to you is your so out of your depth you only make a point to make yourself feel better.
No one on here has called you out
No one’s got personal.
I suggest you investigate Brighton DNA paternity fraud . Contact center that can’t cope with demands because it’s turned into a Jeremy Kyle circus show .
The average cost of legal representation is £,25_35 k for implacable hostility.
The average time for an AILINATED parent to give up hope is 3 years .
No one on here is calling you out .
Let’s us know who you are if you’re a journalist as I haven’t hidden my name .
My dad liked his drink and I didn’t know how much until therapy at 40
I also had an amazing childhood living on a dairy farm learning from my dad from a young age . I saw him every day.and my mother a handicapped children’s nurse trained in Brighton hospital.
I love them both dearly.
But it was horrific and frightening witnessing it all . I should never of been out through that as a 6 year old going on .
I would never want to repeat that for my own child. I don’t drink smoke or take drugs and diagnosed with high functioning Asperger’s which is why I love law . another rabbit hole
I can’t stand TV rubbish like EastEnders as it reminds me of my childhood environment. I can’t understand why it’s never been banias children listening to it won’t know the difference between actors and real life .
I worked for judges , lawyers , firearms pilots doctors and some of the biggest contracts in Europe including FSA bank of America bbc superstar dressing rooms ministry of justice. Police headquarters.
I traveled the world including Antarctica on expedition boat . Volunteering and a panda bear care taker in China . Tagging kangaroos in Australia.
But apparently I wouldn’t know how to get my son across the road safely and no one wanted to see my son’s bedroom I was providing him .
Like my dad said
One day son all this will be your .
I have never profited from it before you accuse me of that .
I’m a grafter and left school at 14 never been out of work. Don’t advertise
Find a job you love and your never work a day in your life
So if this is your job . Does it really make you happy calling people out ?
Why
Rupert, I can see you’ve been through a lot, and I don’t doubt the challenges you’ve faced. I don’t dismiss your experiences; they clearly matter deeply to you. However, when it comes to shaping broader policy, we must rely on accurate data rather than personal anecdotes. That’s not to invalidate your story; it’s just the only way to make logical decisions. I hope you can understand why I keep pressing on sources. It’s not personal.
Benji
I called you out so I know who I’m talking with. But you won’t disclose therefore I’m not giving you my time spent on my data source . So obviously some is confidential and in answer to you at the start . Like you I just googled recent data regarding DNA testing. In some countries that’s already happening.
It’s being thought about in the UK for screening illnesses.
It won’t be long before we all have id cards .
Makes total sense if you got nothing to hide .
As an example only how many immigrants are being housed in Brighton. I simply ask because it’s not something disclosed on Google. Doest mean because Benji can’t find it therefore isn’t anyone ?
You remind me of someone calling me out for the motorcycle I bought when I was parked up . He was giving me all the statistics. I said I bought because it’s the most stunning bike out there.
Mv Augusta f4
So I asked him politely what do you ride ?
He didn’t own a bike . Just turned up every weekend at the shop renting them out and riding like an idiot.
I let the manager know as he was my mate . Later that day he caused an accident with two other cars . So they simply changed the terms . £5000 deposit for a test ride
What’s your name please?
You won’t give me time on provide the source of your information, but will give me your time on a tangential story?
So, for a fifth time, what is your source?
For the sixth time Benji the bus stop reporter
Heinz . I love Heinz ketchup, baked beans ,soup not very often but I do love Heinz .
If you was the editor of Brighton and HOVE news I’d have a meeting in the office.
But your not, Benji
You called everyone out on here . Some have lost children.
You can’t Google there experience can you Benji .
I’m very open . I have publicly asked HOVE crown court to investigate.
Abuse of process
Contempt of court
Perverting the course of public justice
With an email from my MP it’s in the public interest.
Ad hominems mean nothing to me, Rupert, and after multiple times of asking, you have failed to provide any evidence to your figures, so we have to assume they are made up.
Feel free to supply your source, otherwise, unfortunately, you appear to have nothing else of relevance to contribute at this time.
Benji
https://dnatesting.com/30-of-men-not-the-father/
One example
Arrange a meeting with Brighton and HOVE editor and I’ll reveal all you numpty
I was told I wasn’t the father to my new born of 4 weeks by a social worker I had reported to the hcpc for fitness to practice.
They then falsified a s7 report not court ordered.
I suggest you get some legal advice regards your defamatory and libel accusations
Benji
https://dnatesting.com/30-of-men-not-the-father/
One example
Arrange a meeting with Brighton and HOVE editor and I’ll reveal all you numpty
I was told I wasn’t the father to my new born of 4 weeks by a social worker I had reported to the hcpc for fitness to practice.
They then falsified a s7 report not court ordered.
I suggest you get some legal advice regards your defamatory and libel accusations
https://youtube.com/shorts/YrPActVs3yY?si=h4heGDfdcHFPls5d
Just look at the comments section