There is one subject our industry tends to talk about quietly, if at all. So here is the truth. The UK birth rate has fallen to its lowest level on record: 1.41 children per woman, down from around 1.9 fifteen years ago. Around 591,000 babies were born last year, compared with about 730,000 at the 2012 peak. That is roughly one in five fewer babies a year, in little more than a decade.