London - More babies were born last year to women approaching middle age than to young women for the first time.
Figures reveal new mothers in England and Wales were more likely to be over 35 than under 25, an official analysis said.
The shift to a majority in their late 30s and 40s is a landmark in the movement towards older parenthood.
Four decades ago, women aged under 25 gave birth to seven times the number of children born to older women.
It also marks a historic change in the nature of families, with a class gap opening between those with older parents and those with younger parents.
According to the yesterday’s report from the Office for National Statistics, nearly two-thirds of over-30 mothers last year were the equivalent of middle-class or higher up the social scale.
They came from households financed by “higher managerial, administrative or professional” jobs. But two-thirds of the mothers under 30 came from lower-paid homes reliant on routine or middle-ranking employment.
Moreover, two-thirds of mothers over 35 were married, against only one in five mothers under 25.
The movement towards older parenthood has had a major impact on the lives of women who decide too late that they are ready to have children.
Around one in five women are now without their own families when they reach the end of their fertile years, according to ONS figures published last week.
The rate of childlessness for women born in the 1960s is nearly double that of their mothers born in the 1940s.
The latest ONS report, looking at children born last year, said 21 percent of babies were born to women aged 35 or older, compared with 20 percent to women under 25. In raw numbers, 144 181 newborns had mothers aged 35 or older, while the mothers of 138 592 were under 25.
There has never before been a larger number of mothers in the older group than the younger group. In 1974, there were 276 808 mothers under 25 and only 38 352 mothers aged 35 and up.
The figures point to changes for women, which have begun to revolutionise families, including young women choosing education and careers over parenthood, and the cost of homes which means few can afford to spend time at home bringing up children.
The report said: “The overall rise since 1975 reflects the increasing numbers of women who have been delaying childbearing to later ages.
“Possible influences include increased participation in higher education, increased female participation in the labour force, the increasing importance of a career, the rising opportunity costs of childbearing, labour market uncertainty, housing factors and instability of partnerships.
“The average age of father has followed a similar trend… consistently being around three years higher than the average age of the mother.”
The breakdown of figures showed that the popularity of marriage among older mothers has halted the slide towards unmarried parenthood.
Last year 53 percent of new mothers were married, a figure that has held steady since 2010. The continuing majority of married mothers suggests that an educated and high-earning generation of women who have their children late continue to value marriage as the platform for founding a family.
But independent analysts warned of difficulties ahead for the majority of younger mothers who cohabit with the father or have children on their own.
Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation think-tank, said: “The long-term decline of marriage may look like it has come to a halt. But it hasn’t.
“Fewer and fewer women who have babies in their 20s are married. This will have a huge effect on their future stability as a couple and therefore on their children’s upbringing. Like it or not, the odds are stacked against couples who don’t commit before they have children.
“Whereas six out of eight married parents stay together throughout their child’s upbringing, only three out of eight unmarried parents do so. Marriage still matters because clear unambiguous commitment matters.”
Daily Mail