Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Births Registrations in England and Wales, 1982-2019: Secure Access study includes annual data files for all births registered in England and Wales from 1982 to 2019. Birth registration is a legal requirement under the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836. The registration of births occurring in England and Wales is a service carried out by the Local Registration Service in partnership with the General Register Office (GRO). Information collected at birth registration is recorded on the Registration Online (RON) system by Registrars. Most of the information is usually supplied by the parent(s). For live births, details of the birth weight are transferred to the Registrar from the NHS birth notification. Further information about live birth statistics is available from the Office for National Statistics live births web page.

Prospective users will need to apply for access to this controlled access data via the UK Data Service Secure Lab. Further information is available on the Apply to Access Controlled Data in SecureLab web pages.

Latest edition information:
For the ninth edition (October 2022), the 2021 data file has been added to the study, and the documentation has been updated.

Main Topics:

Full details of the variables included are in the 'Births Variable Catalogue' and in 'Metadata Birth Registrations' available from the Documentation section below. Not all variables are available every year but the main areas covered include:

• child's date of birth, gender, birth weight and place of birth
• mother's date of birth, age at birth, country of birth, postcode of residence, marital status, occupation status, social class and employment status
• father's date of birth, age at birth, country of birth, occupation status, social class and employment status
• details of stillbirths