The fertility rate in England and Wales has fallen to the lowest level on record – 1.44 children per woman. A rate of 2.1 is considered enough to sustain a population without migration. In Scotland the figure fell to 1.3.

In a country where house prices and thus family formation are being pushed out of reach for millions – something also not helped by poor wage growth as well as expensive childcare costs – it is little wonder the average age of new fathers is nearly 34 and new mothers nearly 31.

A few observations are worth highlighting. While the data has not been broken down by race, it’s a fair bet that the birth rate for non-whites is probably higher than for whites, meaning the white fertility rate is probably even lower than 1.44.

This will continue to change the demographic makeup of a country where around 30 per cent of school pupils are already ethnic minority. Even if the border was slammed shut tomorrow, this demographic change is now baked in.

At the same time, mass immigration is clearly not arresting the decline in fertility even if it may offer some reprieve for a shortfall in workers. Even as new arrivals and minorities have more children, the fertility rate is still in freefall. Japan, Korea and Poland would do well to take note of this as all three are encouraged by Western policymakers to open their borders to offset native population declines.

No doubt the usual cohort will claim a fertility rate fall in Britain will help with population and housing pressures. Fat chance! Not only does the UK housing market not work in such a linear fashion (thanks to overseas and second home ownership, for example) but Britain’s economy and welfare models depend on more taxpayers and workers to fund mostly elderly care.

Forget all the guff about Britain’s elderly having paid into the system. There never was a bloody system. It was a pay-as-you-go model where money was going in one side of the Treasury and out of the other. Hence the debts Britain has racked up and the need today for more taxpayers to bankroll an ageing and increasingly sickly population.

If older Brits throw their hands up and claim ‘not out fault guv, we did as we were told’, well if it isn’t your fault, it is even less the fault of younger Brits who increasingly bare the brunt of overpriced and crummy housing, alongside poor wage growth. Throw in expensive childcare costs and it’s little wonder the fertility rate has fallen so dramatically.

Expect this data to ironically encourage yet more immigration meanwhile, especially as Labour looks for cheap and cheerful ways to boost economic growth, even though – long term – this will do little to offset population declines and per capita productivity. Moreover Britain could achieve its economic goals through Singapore-style guest workers.

There is no nice way to dress this data up. It is catastrophic for a country which needs more taxpayers and workers to fund its economy, NHS and welfare state, while at the same time needing to accommodate the demand for fewer migrants. Even though immigration isn’t offsetting the fertility shortfall, the latter is likely to be used as a justification for more arrivals.

This is not a uniquely British experience. Fertility rates are falling globally – especially in the developed world – with immigration justified as a means to offset the decline in the Anglosphere and Western Europe. For my money, environmental and dietary factors are likely also contributing to a drop-off in the birth rate. A decline in religion may also be impacting all of this.

Of course there are positive factors behind the decline as well. More women are being educated which is leading to a delay in family formation, especially as females become more choosey about their partners. Still, it is not a good thing if there are fewer eligible men for these women. Nor is it good if educated women – who want children – find they have to push the prospect of motherhood to the point it may become untenable.

Like it or not, science has not yet fixed the window of opportunity women have for children, while egg freezing and sperm donors are in no way, shape or form fool-proof or able to compensate for the traditional routes for couples to have families. The rise of AI could also mean the educational and professional gains made by women (and many men) in recent years could be a one-generation bet as machines increasingly do the work of today’s lawyers, accountants and consultants.

Politicians would do well to spend as much time talking about this issue – with roots in everything from overpriced housing to eye-watering childcare costs to rising atheism – as they do immigration, which a) is no solution to the fertility crisis, and b) is now so long in the making that the demographic changes are already well baked in anyway.

Add in the prospect of younger and entrepreneurial Brits heading for pastures new – the last people, by the way, the UK wants to see leaving – and this catastrophe could turn into a full-blown nightmare. A few notable voices – like former Tory MP Miriam Cates – have sounded the alarm of this issue before. Now more voices are needed in Parliament and beyond.