About quarter of babies in Britain are born to immigrant mums

There were 808,000 births in the UK last year, of which 196,000 - or 24.3 per cent - were children of women born outside Britain, according to the latest data.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows there has been a steady increase in the number of children born to mothers who were born abroad since 2001, when the figure stood at 15.3 per cent.

Polish women, who live in Britain, gave birth to around 23,000 children last year while Pakistani women had 19,200 babies and Indian women 15,500 children in the same period, The Sun tabloid reported today.

Four in 10 children born to immigrant mothers were delivered in London. Half were born in other parts of England, and just one in 10 was born in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland combined.

The ONS said that fertility rates for non-UK born women are higher than those born in Britain.