WARWICKSHIRE saw a Covid baby boom.
The county witnessed a 155 per cent increase in ‘lockdown baby’ registrations – one of the highest in the UK according to a new study.
The research by Reassured analysed ONS births data and combined it with local register office figures sourced via freedom of information requests, to see how the number of registered babies compared with pre-pandemic, as well as where in the UK saw the biggest ‘boom’ in births.
Overall, nearly 8,000 babies have been registered in Warwickshire since the start of the pandemic, while more than 4,000 were conceived and subsequently born here since the UK first went into lockdown.
Across the country, March 2021 saw the highest number of ‘Covid baby’ births during the pandemic, with 58,409 new-borns registered across the UK. Of these, 52,473 were in England and Wales, 3,693 were in Scotland and 1,990 were in Northern Ireland.
June 2020 was the month when the most ‘Covid babies’ were conceived nationwide, and March 23 this year was a peak date for new-borns – exactly nine months after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an easing of lockdown rules on June 23 last year.
Late-March 2020, when the first national lockdown began, was also a peak time for conception, with a higher-than-normal birth rate reported nine months later in December 2020 and January 2021 (47,823 and 47,500 respectively).
A spokesperson for Reassured said: “With all Covid-19 restrictions now lifted, we’re finally able to look back and explore any more positive outcomes of such a challenging time.
“Our analysis shows many took the big step of having a child in lockdown, with nearly a quarter of a million new-born babies registered by parents from December 2020 – nine months after the restrictive Covid-19 measures were put in place.”
