Last year more deaths than births were registered in the UK for the first time since 1976.
In total, just over 683,000 births were registered compared with nearly 690,000 deaths.
This was only the second time deaths have outnumbered births since the late 1890s.
The coronavirus epidemic led to a sharp rise in deaths last year but birth rates have also been falling for the last decade.
The coronavirus effect
The number of deaths in the UK has been rising in recent years, but part of that increase is due to the UK population increasing and getting older.
Last year's 13% rise in that figure is attributed by statisticians to the coronavirus pandemic.
It was the largest jump in a single year seen
since World War Two, bringing death rates, the chances of any single person dying, back to levels seen in 2008.
Figures published this morning by the Office for National Statistics suggest the first lockdown had
not led to a baby boom.
Birth rates in December and January, nine months after lockdown started, were sharply down on the same months one year before.
But the pandemic has affected register offices, leading to problems with birth registrations, so the ONS "urges caution" when reading meaning into these figures.