Official Statistics

Breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks after birth: annual data 2021 to 2022

Annual datasets on the number and proportion of infants who have been fully, partially or not at all breastfed at 6 to 8 weeks after birth.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

Annual experimental statistics on breastfeeding prevalence at 6 to 8 weeks after birth. Information is presented at local authority of residence, regional and England level.

The latest annual data covers the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022. Data from previous years was published by OHID and Public Health England.

The data was collected through an interim reporting system set up to collect health visiting activity data at a local authority resident level. Data was submitted by local authorities on a voluntary basis.

Correction notice

Since publication in November 2022, Durham has identified a discrepancy in the breastfeeding data it submitted for 2021 to 2022. This discrepancy has caused a statistically significant change in the North East value for breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks. A separate issue has been identified for the South East and East of England figures, and so OHID has updated and reissued the data in OHID’s Fingertips tool.

Published 1 November 2022
Last updated 17 February 2023 + show all updates
  1. Updated correction notice and revised data tables.

  2. Added a correction notice and revised data tables.

  3. An issue has been identified with the local authority data used to produce the annual 2021 to 2022 breastfeeding at 6 to 8 weeks figures. This impacts the annual figures for the North East, with the current figures representing a slight overestimate for this region. An updated version will be published in February 2023.

  4. First published.