Briefing 7: Births in Glasgow (Diversity)

Overview

Previous briefings have reported on trends concerning births and deaths in Glasgow.  There has been a drop in the number of births, which for Glasgow, in common with the rest of Scotland in general, is now lower than the number of deaths. 

More recently, additional information has become available on the mother's country of birth, UK or non-UK. 

The trend has been that around one-third of births in Glasgow have been to a mother born outside the UK.  This level is similar to Aberdeen and Edinburgh, and around twice the rate for Scotland as a whole.  This trend has been in place for at least the last five years. 

It is clear that this diversity is seen in urban areas, and not so much in non-urban and rural local authorities.

Births in Glasgow by Mothers' Place of Birth

It is worth noting that this diversity results from mothers born outside the UK. Mothers from an ethnic minority background and who themselves were born in the UK are not included in these figures. 

Some information is available on the place of birth although the dataset has a lot of missing data. 

For 2020 in Glasgow, 477 births were to mothers born in the EU, while 685 births were to mothers born in ex-Commonwealth countries, this balance has been roughly the same since 2016. 

Table 1: Births in Glasgow by Mothers' Place of Birth

Births 2020 - Selected Local Authorities

In part this reflects the trend for population growth, especially in cities, to reflect levels of in-migration, particularly from non UK sources. 

It points to an increasing level of diversity in the cities, which is in contrast to many rural areas, and also to the surrounding local authorities in the Non-Glasgow Conurbation. 

The contrast is shown in the following table:

Table 2: Births 2020 - Selected Local Authorities

Implications on childcare and schooling, local support networks

The data suggests that at least some of the in-migrants from overseas sources are intending to settle in Glasgow, and to raise a family, and that diversity as shown by this indicator is likely to be a common feature in the future.