GONNA NEED MORE PLUMBERS:

Migrants push birth rate to highest in decades (Nicole Martin 09/06/2007, Daily Telegraph)

The birth rate has soared to a 26-year high because of a surge in immigration, experts said yesterday.

Their comments followed figures from the Office of National Statistics which showed that women had an average of 1.87 children last year compared with 1.8 children in 2005 and 1.63 in 2001. [...]

Statistics also revealed that 146,944 children were born last year to mothers who did not come from Britain. In 1998 the total was 86,345. Babies born to mothers from overseas accounted for 21.9 per cent of all births last year, up from 20.8 per cent the year before.
advertisement

Prof Danny Dorling, an expert in human geography at Sheffield University, said immigration had pushed the figures up.

Even that doesn't get them to replacement rate.

MORE:
Muhammad is No 2 in boy's names (Helen Nugent and Nadia Menuhin, 6/09/07, Times of London)

Muhammad is now second only to Jack as the most popular name for baby boys in Britain and is likely to rise to No 1 by next year, a study by The Times has found. The name, if all 14 different spellings are included, was shared by 5,991 newborn boys last year, beating Thomas into third place, followed by Joshua and Oliver.

Scholars said that the name’s rise up the league table was driven partly by the growing number of young Muslims having families, coupled with the desire to name their child in honour of the Prophet.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2007 12:00 AM