Why Are Families Disappearing From London?

Something strange is happening in this part of London. Fewer babies are being born here than in almost any other part of the capital. Do I want to bring someone else into that if I can't actually support myself at this point? We live in a one bedroom as well, two kids, so our living room becomes our bedroom. It would be a very strange city without any families, wouldn't it? Okay, before we get into this, I want to point out that fertility rates, that's the number of children that a woman is expected to have over her lifetime, are falling in other parts of the world, in England and across inner London. But I've come here to Islington because that trend is more extreme. At 0.99, it's the lowest rate in the capital, apart from the City of London, and one of the lowest in the country. To put it in perspective, the rate in England and Wales is 1.4, which is already down from 1.9 15 years ago. The average age of a mother in Islington is also 34.7, the fourth highest in the country. Sorry to interrupt you from bubble time. I want to find out what's really behind these numbers, so I joined a Zip Zap Baby music class in the borough. How have you found family life in Islington? Crisis is a huge factor, it's increasing and renting as well. And even if we have a good job, we are not sure we could afford that and taking into account that we want a second child, we know that we need to move out of London. You're making the decision to move back to Luxembourg? Yes, exactly. Luxembourg is a country where child care is free. This is my first and I was 41 when I first had him. It's difficult for women to know when the right time is to have a baby and so I think you want to sort of reach the pinnacle of your career before maybe venturing down that path. I was 35, so I had her a bit later, so it was twofold. It was intentional because I was moving forward in my career and I was really, really focused on that. And then when we started to try, no one tells you how hard it actually is. Are you a local dad in the area? Yeah, yeah I am, yeah. What do you think the big challenges are then in living in Islington as a family? We live in a one bedroom as well with two kids, so our living room becomes our bedroom, our one bed becomes the kids room and you know, it's one of those things where you just have to juggle and make use of the space. But you know, Islington is a very lovely area to live in, it's great, but because of that it's really expensive to live in as well. But what about those who haven't had kids yet? Is it on their radar? Could they even imagine raising a family here in inner London? Hi everyone! Students Jess, Emily and Millie, all in their early 20s and living in Islington, were happy to have a chat. It was never something I worried about, but now I'm kind of like, oh I need to make sure I'm like settled and can afford that if that's something I want in the future. Obviously that's very stressful at the moment with like cost of living and where the job market is. I definitely do want to have children, but kind of same thing at Jess, as Jess. There's like a million and one things that I want to do first. I want to have a career. It kind of sounds like you've got so much to think about as it is. The thought of even considering having a family, it feels like a whole other step that is perhaps overwhelming to think about at the moment or it feels relevant. Do I want to bring someone else into that if I can't actually support myself at this point? When having conversations with grandparents or parents and they'll, you know, slide in a little comment about like, oh what happens when you have children? And then you get to say, I might not. It doesn't have to happen. I think one thing that became clear to me whilst making this film is how personal this subject is, but I've had some really honest conversations. Some people said they don't want kids. Others say that they couldn't have kids. Some say they had them later than planned. There isn't one single reason. Basically a lot's going on here both socially and economically and I've been working with the BBC's data team. They're essentially the clever people who do the maths bit and what we found is that in Islington, on average people spend almost half their salary on rent. Homes are 12 times the average salary. It has some of the longest social housing waiting lists in the country and some of the country's highest childcare costs. Factors like these are pushing families out of inner London to outer London and beyond. At the other end of the scale, London's highest fertility rates, almost double Islington's, are in Barking and Dagenham, Redbridge and Hillingdon. We are already seeing the impact of fewer children. Schools are closing. Maternity units are closing. Key workers are leaving the city, which has an impact on the workforce and the economy. But what does that tell us about the direction that a city is heading in? If you have a hollowing out of children, it has all kinds of impacts on different urban institutions. So there's a kind of a famous saying in urban design and urban planning, like children are an indicator species. If you see children on the sidewalks, in streets, going in and out of schools and parks and playgrounds, that's a sign of a healthy city. If you see a dearth of children in the city, that rings alarm bells that this city is not healthy. It's not functioning the way it should. We need to tackle this as an absolute emergency. If that continues on the current projections, we'll see a doughnut effect where we've got virtually no children left in inner London and only in the outer boroughs. That would be an existential challenge for London. The mayor says he's tackling these pressures by increasing affordable housing, funding free school meals and supporting public services. The government says they've improved parental leave, rolled out 30 hours of funded childcare a week and are building more council homes. This isn't just a story about the number of babies being born. It's about childcare, housing, work, money and the choices that people feel they can or can't make. The number of babies being born in Islington is a snapshot of a wider trend and how life in London is changing.