NEW DELHI: New birth registration figures for England and Wales show that between 2021 and 2025 around 118 boys were born for every 100 girls to Indian-origin mothers, a ratio markedly higher than the UK national average of about 105 and above the upper expected biological range of 107.
The imbalance was strongest at third births, where ratios reached 114 boys per 100 girls in 2021–22 and about 118:100 in 2023–24 and 2024–25, according to analysis of Office for National Statistics (ONS) data reported by media. This pattern has drawn renewed attention to debates over cultural son preference and possible sex-selective abortion among some British Indian families.
Sex-selective abortion is prohibited in the UK under the Abortion Act 1967 and Department of Health and Social Care guidance.
These recent patterns build on earlier official analysis. A UK government report titled Sex ratios at birth in the United Kingdom: 2017 to 2021 — published on 12 October 2023 by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities examined 36 lakh live births across the UK.
It found that while the overall national ratio remained within normal limits at 105.4 males per 100 females, Indian-ethnicity children born at third or later order in England and Wales recorded 113 boys per 100 girls, a statistically significant deviation from expected biological norms.
Using standard demographic methods, the 2017–2021 analysis estimated that about 400 female births of Indian ethnicity may have been “missing” from the data. This data may be used as a proxy indicator to highlight possible sex-selective termination practices.
According to the same government analysis of 2023, no other ethnic group showed a comparable statistically significant imbalance. Some categories such as Bangladeshi, Black African, White British and “ethnicity not stated” showed increased raw ratios in isolated sub-samples, but these were consistent with random variation.
The official report of 2023 also examined abortion records for 2017–2021 in England and Wales, noting 13 843 legal abortions among women of Indian ethnicity with two or more previous births, with the majority (87.5 per cent) occurring before seven weeks of gestation, a period when foetal sex is generally not detectable through routine screening. A smaller number of procedures occurred later, when sex identification is technically possible.
The 2017–2021 report marked the first time since routine UK monitoring began in 2013 that a statistically robust imbalance of this nature had been identified for a specific ethnic group and birth order. Its findings now serve as a baseline against which the more recent 2021–2025 figures are being compared in public discourse.
Observers caution that imbalanced birth ratios alone cannot prove sex-selective abortion unless direct termination records are linked to sex determination, a level of detail not captured in UK datasets. Nonetheless, sustained deviations over multiple years are widely regarded by demographers as strong indicators warranting policy and public health attention.