UK baby names and births data
Every year the Office for National Statistics publishes the most popular baby names, the number of births, the birth rate and the average age of mothers in England and Wales. BabyData brings those headline figures together and turns the underlying datasets into something you can explore. Each number links back to its primary ONS source and is refreshed when that source updates. This is the same official data the annual most-popular-baby-name story is built on.
UK baby data, at a glance
| Measure | Latest UK figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Most popular girls' name (England and Wales) | Olivia | ONS Baby names in England and Wales |
| Most popular boys' name (England and Wales) | Muhammad | ONS Baby names in England and Wales |
| Live births in England and Wales (latest year) | About 591,000 | ONS Births in England and Wales |
| Average (mean) age of mothers | About 30.9 years | ONS Births in England and Wales |
| Total fertility rate (England and Wales) | About 1.44 children per woman | ONS Births in England and Wales |
Figures are the latest published headline figures from each ONS release and are refreshed on release. Values are rounded.
For the fuller cited reference, including Scotland and Northern Ireland figures, see the UK baby names and births statistics page. The same figures are available, with their methods, through the data API and MCP server.
Interactive: the Names and Births Time Machine
Enter a name, a birth year and a region and see the top names that year, the sibling names that went with it, the average age of mothers and the birth-rate context. This single page, aggregating ONS names, births and age-of-mother data with National Records of Scotland and NISRA, is being wired to the source datasets ahead of launch.
Editor, BabyData
Oliver Mackman is the named editor of BabyData and a director of Best Business Loans Ltd (Companies House 16833937), the company that operates the site. He is accountable for its editorial standards, sourcing and corrections, and requires every number to cite the underlying rule and the official UK dataset behind it, with pregnancy tools reviewed against NHS and gov.uk guidance before publication.
Last reviewed: 12 June 2026