Fewer than two-thirds of babies born in England and Wales are now registered as ‘White British’. Newly-released figures give the first official breakdown of births by ethnic identity, and offer a striking insight into the changing face of Britain’s population.

Of 649,371 babies born in 2005, 64.4% were recorded as ‘White British’. The next largest group were the 8.7% who were recorded as Asian — of whom Pakistanis formed the biggest section with 3.7%.

Five percent of babies were recorded as black: 3% African, 1.2% ‘black or black British Caribbean’ and 0.8% ‘other black’ identities.

Mixed race babies accounted for 3.5% of births, while 5.1% were Irish or ‘other white identities’ and 2.4% were Chinese or ‘other groups’. Just under 11% had no ethnic identity recorded.

The report from the Office for National Statistics follows a separate publication last week showing that a quarter of all babies are now born to immigrant mothers.

In London the figure is 54%, rising to 75% in some boroughs. The fast-moving trend means that babies born to immigrant mothers are set to become the main driver of Britain’s population growth within the next few years, taking over from immigration itself.

The proportion of births registered by single mothers — those where no father’s details are given — was highest in the Caribbean group at 20.5% followed by African (13%) and ‘White British’ (7%).

The findings will reinforce concerns over the effects of broken homes and the lack of effective male role-models among black youths.

Former Labour MP and Minister Tony Benn hailed the figures as “a delightful snapshot of life in multicultural Britain.”

Sir Andrew Green, chairman of the MigrationWatch think tank said: “This is a measure of the extent to which uncontrolled immigration is changing the nature of our society, against the wishes of a very large majority. Immigration is now expected to account for 70 percent of our population increase in the next 25 years. This means we will have to build a city the size of Birmingham every three or four years to sustain the newcomers. The Government has allowed immigration to get out of control, but they still show no sign of a serious effort to reduce it.”