Island near top of UK 'baby deserts' where plunging birth rates cause concern

SOME cite financial instability and housing shortages, others blame career women or difficulties finding a suitable partner. Whatever the case, Anglesey has been declared a “baby desert” with a birth rate amongst the lowest in the UK.

- Andrew Forgrave

Over the past 15 years the island has recorded the largest fertility decline in Wales, dropping by almost half (-44.21%). New data shows the has the third biggest drop in birth rates in the UK - behind only London’s Richmond upon Thames, and Kensington and Chelsea.

The trend has been recognised for some time. Although the declines have stabilised in recent years, Anglesey Council is being forced to reconfigure its entire further education system to account for dwindling numbers of post-16 students in the years to come.

The issue is not unique to the island. Across Wales and England, fertility rates have fallen in most local authority areas over the past decade or so. The baby boom of the 1960s has been replaced by a “baby bust”

According to an academic quoted by the Daily Mail, the downward trend could trigger an underpopulation crisis, potentially leaving Britain reliant on immigration to prop up the UK economy.

Next worst in Wales, in terms of birth rates, is Wrexham, where they have fallen by 31.01% in 15 years.

However there are signs this has stabilised or even reversed in recent years: Wrexham’s population grew slightly in 2021-22 and, with new housing in the pipeline, this trend is expected to be maintained.