One in 45 babies delivered in 2020 was born with a congenital anomaly, according to a new report published by NHS Digital today.

The Congenital Anomaly Official Statistics Report 2020 shows that of the 589,454 births in England in 2020, 13,065 involved babies born with at least one congenital anomaly.

Congenital anomalies are defined as being present at delivery and originating before birth. They cover structural and genetic anomalies and include conditions such as Down’s syndrome, Edwards’ syndrome and Patau’s syndrome.

During 2020, the total birth prevalence in England for Down syndrome was 1 in 377 births, Edwards’ syndrome was 1 in 1,352 births and Patau’s syndrome was 1 in 3,707 births.

Data in the publication is broken down to provide details on the age and location of the mother.

The rate of genetic congenital anomalies in those born to women over 40 was over seven times higher than for babies born to women under 20 years of age.

The report shows there were 548 infant deaths among babies with one or more congenital anomalies in the 587,222 live births in 20202, giving an infant mortality rate for congenital anomalies of 9.3 per 10,000 live births.