Standing view · population · Preston
rising, held with established confidence, formed on 31 August 2026 from movements in 2025.
Live births in Preston rose to 1,925 in 2024. The crude birth rate was 11.9 per thousand residents that year, the general fertility rate 54.3 live births per thousand women of childbearing age and the total fertility rate 1.55. Population rose from 161,593 in 2024 to 164,498 in 2025. Only the birth count records a direction here, and with one reading it cannot show whether the rise has continued.
A view is formed only where the evidence names a figure you can check. Each movement listed as a reason had to be large enough to matter and distinctive in at least one way — unusual against this area's own history, unusual against comparable areas, or sustained over several periods. A movement shared with peers counts for less, because it says something about the country rather than about Preston. Where no figure supports a direction we hold no view rather than a hedged one.
| Measure | Period | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Live births | 2024 | rising |
These figures carry no defensible direction of their own: a rising house price is good news to an owner and bad news to someone trying to buy, so we do not score one as an improvement. They are shown because they are part of the picture, and they did not decide the view above.
| Measure | Period | Series |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 2024 | — |
| Crude birth rate | 2024 | — |
| General fertility rate (GFR) | 2024 | — |
| Total fertility rate (TFR) | 2024 | — |
| Population | 2025 | — |