Changing face of population is revealed

Just 16.5 per cent of babies were born to white British mothers at the trust which runs Sandwell Hospital, new figures have revealed.

And in some parts of the country it is just one in 10.

The statistics - based on NHS monitoring of the ethnicity and nationality of patients - show sharp contrasts in the backgrounds of new mothers in urban and rural areas.

They are based on how mothers described themselves and not the ethnicity of the fathers of the babies.

Across all of England's 150 NHS Trusts there were 652,638 deliveries last year, around six out of 10 of them to women who called themselves white British.

However, in some trusts serving rural areas, more than 95 per cent of mothers fell into that category.

These included Northern Devon with 97.4 per cent, Co Durham and Darlington with 97.1, and Northumbria with 96 per cent.

Meanwhile, at Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Sandwell, Rowley Regis and City Hospitals, 16.5 per cent of babies were born to white British mothers, while at North West London Hospitals NHS Trust, which covers Harrow, just 9.4 per cent of mothers were white British.

Across England, 62 per cent of all births last year involved white British mothers.

The largest other single ethnic groups were 'other white', including Eastern Europeans which made up seven per cent of births, black, five per cent, Pakistani, four per cent and Indian, three per cent.

Of the rest of the mothers, eight per cent described their ethnicity as 'other', including mixed-race women.

Britain's population growth is outpacing every other country in Europe.