The number of babies born in Buckinghamshire has increased in the last year despite a national drop, new figures show. 

Data from the Office for National Statistics show there were 5,585 live births in the county in 2023 - up from 5,533 the year before. 

The fertility rate remained the same however with 1.62 births per woman in 2023. 

Across the country though, the birth rate hit its lowest level since records began in 1938 with 1.44 live births per woman. 

The total of live births in England and Wales also dropped to its lowest since 1977 with 591,000 registered last year. 

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The biggest drops in the overall total fertility rate were in Wales where it dropped from 1.46 to 1.39 and the North West with a decrease from 1.53 to 1.46.

London, the North East and the West Midlands saw the smallest decreases.

In the South East, it fell from 1.53 in 2022 to 1.47 last year.

The ONS added the fertility rate has declined most sharply for women aged between 20 and 24 and 25 and 29.

Professor Melinda Mills, professor of demography and population health at the University of Oxford, said: "People are actively postponing or forgoing children due to issues related to difficulties in finding a partner, housing, economic uncertainty, remaining longer in education and particularly women entering and staying in the labour force.

"Some individuals also actively make the choice to remain child-free.

"However, there is evidence that postponing having children to later ages when the partners are less able to conceive results in increases in involuntarily childlessness as well."

Dr Bassel Al Wattar, associate professor of reproductive medicine at Anglia Ruskin University, described the downward trend in birth rate as "worrying yet persistent".

He said it might be explained by the cost-of-living crisis, as well as a reduction in available NHS funding for fertility treatments such as IVF.