NCARDRS Congenital Condition Official Statistics Report, 2022

Birth prevalence describes the occurrence of congenital conditions and is used to quantify the proportion of babies born with these conditions in a population in a year. See the Technical details for the formulae used in this report to compute prevalence.

Total prevalence and live birth prevalence are the two most frequently used measures to describe congenital conditions.

Total birth prevalence is defined as the total number of babies with at least one congenital condition occurring in all pregnancy outcomes (live births, stillbirths, late miscarriages between 20-23 complete weeks and terminations at any gestation) per 10,000 live births and stillbirths (total births). Data table 1 shows that a total of 14,772 babies delivered in 2022 had one or more congenital conditions out of 579,322 total births in England. This gives a total birth prevalence of babies with congenital conditions of 255.0 per 10,000 total births (95% confidence intervals (CI) 250.9-259.1).

This means that one baby was diagnosed with a congenital condition for every 39 total births.

Live birth prevalence is the total number of babies with at least one congenital condition occurring in live births per 10,000 live births. In 2022, 10,856 babies with at least one congenital condition were born alive, giving a live birth prevalence of 188.1 per 10,000 live births (95% CI 184.6-191.7). This means that one baby was diagnosed with a congenital condition for every 53 live births.

Both total and live birth prevalence in 2022 were higher than those reported for 2021. Total prevalence per 10,000 total births was 255.0 (95% CI 250.9-259.1) in 2022 compared with 234.6 (95% CI 230.7-238.5) in 2021; live birth prevalence per 10,000 live births in 2022 was 188.1 (95% CI184.6-191.7) and 169.2 (95% CI 165.9-172.5) in 2021. This may be a reflection of improved ascertainment as NCARDRS matures, after 5 years of national data, but will also be a consequence of a 4-month delay in finalising the 2022 birth cohort, allowing more time for data accumulation for the 2022 birth cohort compared to 2021.