Babies born in England by ethnic group, April to June 2026 (first estimate)

Whose ethnic group

It is the baby’s ethnic group, as the mother gave it on the NHS birth notification. The midwife or doctor fills in that form at the birth. It is not the mother’s or the father’s ethnic group, and it is not nationality or country of birth.

Where and which births

England only, counted by where the mother usually lives. Births to mothers who live outside England and Wales are left out. These are live births that happened from 1 April 2026 to 30 June 2026 and were registered by 18 September 2026. Stillbirths are counted separately.

First estimate

The ONS calls these figures provisional. Later editions add births registered late, so counts can rise a little. The ONS first put January to March 2026 at 135,283 live births in England, and now puts it at 135,417. Final figures come with the ONS annual births release.

The ONS workbook says the next edition, for July to September 2026, comes in January 2027. The ONS has not set a date yet.

Not stated

1,817 babies had no ethnic group given. They are shown as their own row, as an empty circle, and are not shared out among the other groups. Every share on this page is out of all 138,989 live births, Not stated included.

The groups

The ONS changed these groups for the 2020 figures to line up with Census 2021, so earlier years may not match them. The ONS does not say which group takes babies recorded as Irish, Gypsy or Irish Traveller, Roma, Chinese or Arab.

Shares and dots

The ONS publishes counts only. Every share, dot and change on this page is worked out here, by dividing a count by the total for its quarter. Each group gets the whole dots of its share first. The dots left over go to the groups with the largest parts left over, so there are always exactly 100.

A year earlier

The comparison uses April to June 2025 as the ONS first published it, on 24 October 2025, so both quarters are first estimates. Those births were registered by 9 October 2025, 101 days after the quarter ended. This year’s were registered by 18 September 2026, after 80 days. Both are past the 42-day limit for registering a birth.

Why dots and not faces

Elsewhere on Headcount, faces stand for people. The faces have skin tones, and an ethnic group is not a skin colour, so this chart uses plain dots that look the same in every group.