Births with Low Birthweight in England and Wales, 1999-2026

Low birthweight is an enduring aspect of childhood morbidity and a major factor in infant mortality. This dataset from the Greater London Authority tracks the percentage of births with low birthweight (<2500g) in England and Wales from 1999 to 2026, with data allocated based on the mother's place of usual residence. The indicator is no longer being updated, but monitoring trends is desirable for addressing future health inequalities.

Use Cases

• Analyzing trends in low birthweight rates over time based on the time series from 1999, 2004, and 2005.
• Investigating geographical disparities in birth outcomes based on allocation to the mother's usual residence.
• Studying the relationship between low birthweight and later health outcomes based on the described association with adverse health in childhood and adulthood.
• Monitoring progress on public health indicators for term babies and all babies based on data sourced from the PHOF and NHS IC.

Strengths

• Provides a long-term time series with data points starting in 1999, 2004, and 2005.
• Includes multiple calculation methods for low birthweight percentages, covering term births and all births.
• Data is geographically allocated based on the mother's place of usual residence, allowing for area-based analysis.
• Description cites specific academic research (Moser et al., 2003) on social inequalities related to the data.

Limitations

• The dataset description states the indicator is no longer being updated.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Greater London Authority, compiling data from Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) and NHS IC.

Collection Method

Likely compiled from official birth registration and health records.

Time Range

Time series starting from 1999, 2004, and 2005, with a last update date of 2026-06-24.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-24 21:07:03.700076; freshness should be verified as the indicator is no longer updated.

Geography

England and Wales, with allocation based on mother's usual residence. Data for the City of London is included with Hackney.