Abortion Statistics in the UK 2026 | Rates, Causes & Key Facts

Abortion in the UK in 2026

The United Kingdom’s abortion statistics in 2026 are defined by two stark realities operating simultaneously. The first is a sustained and steep rise in total procedures across all four nations: England and Wales recorded 277,970 abortions in 2023 — the highest annual total since the Abortion Act 1967 was introduced — while Scotland recorded 18,710 in 2024 and Northern Ireland recorded 2,792 in 2023/24, bringing the combined UK estimate for 2024 to approximately 305,000 abortions, the first time the national total has exceeded 300,000 in recorded history. The second reality is one of structural transformation: the method through which abortions are performed has shifted almost completely away from surgical procedures in clinics toward medication taken at home, with 87% of England and Wales abortions in 2023 performed medically, and 72% involving both medications taken entirely at home without the need to attend any clinic or hospital. These two trends — rising volumes and a home-medication revolution — are the defining statistical story of UK abortion in 2026.

Understanding the UK abortion statistics for 2026 requires a working knowledge of the legislative and administrative fragmentation of the UK system, in which abortion law is devolved to different levels of government across England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, and in which statistical reporting is handled by at least three separate bodies — the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) for England and Wales, Public Health Scotland for Scotland, and the Department of Health Northern Ireland for Northern Ireland. England and Wales data, published by the DHSC as Accredited Official Statistics on the basis of mandatory HSA4 abortion notification forms, is the most comprehensive and recently published for the 2023 calendar year in a report released on 15 January 2026. Scotland’s data through 2024 was published by Public Health Scotland in May 2025. Northern Ireland’s data through 2023/24 was published in January 2025. The 2024 data for England and Wales had not been published as of June 2026, leaving analysts dependent on independent estimates from providers BPAS and MSI Reproductive Choices to construct a full UK picture for 2024.

Key Facts: UK Abortion Statistics 2026

Sources: Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) / Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (published 15 January 2026; updated 19 March 2026); Public Health Scotland, Termination of Pregnancy Statistics — Year ending December 2024 (May 27, 2025); Department of Health Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics Publication 2023/24 (January 30, 2025); Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) response to 2023 statistics; Percuity blog — 300,000 abortions in the UK in 2024 (January 2026); Scottish Government, Review of Abortion Law in Scotland — Expert Group Report (November 2025)

The key facts behind UK abortion statistics in 2026 confirm a picture of sustained, multi-year growth across every nation of the United Kingdom. The 277,970 total in England and Wales in 2023 represents a figure 36% higher than in 2018 — an increase of more than 68,000 additional procedures in five years — and the pace has accelerated rather than moderated as time has passed. The combined UK estimate of approximately 305,000 in 2024 means that the country now records roughly 835 abortions every single day, or one every 105 seconds. The 46.2 abortions per 100 live births estimated for 2024 means that for every three healthy pregnancies resulting in birth in the UK, one is terminated — a ratio that has risen sharply from approximately one-in-five in the early 1990s, to one-in-four by 2020, and now one-in-three by 2024.

The statistical data gap at the England and Wales level is a point of significant concern among researchers and policymakers. The 2023 report, published in January 2026, arrived more than two years after the end of the reporting period — a delay the DHSC has attributed to backlogs in the processing of HSA4 notification forms and system reviews following the COVID-19 era. The 2024 data was not expected to be published until well into 2026 or beyond. This publication delay means that the most recent official England and Wales figure remains 2023, and analysts including Percuity and BPAS have used provider-level data to estimate 2024 totals. What the available evidence confirms is continued growth: BPAS reported a 3% increase in the year ending March 2025, MSI Reproductive Choices reported a 5% increase for the same period, and Scotland’s and Northern Ireland’s official 2024 data both confirmed year-on-year rises.

England and Wales Abortion Totals — Historical Trend 2014–2023

Abortions for Residents of England and Wales (Annual)
2014  |████████████████████████████             | 190,092
2015  |████████████████████████████             | 191,014
2016  |████████████████████████████             | 190,406
2017  |██████████████████████████████           | 197,533
2018  |███████████████████████████████          | 205,295
2019  |████████████████████████████████         | 209,519
2020  |████████████████████████████████         | 210,860
2021  |█████████████████████████████████        | 214,869
2022  |████████████████████████████████████████ | 251,377 (+17%)
2023  |█████████████████████████████████████████| 277,970 (+10.6%)
      |------+------+------+------+------+------|
      0  50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 280,000

Sources: DHSC / OHID, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (15 January 2026); DHSC Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2022 (December 2024); Abort-Report.eu — England and Wales abortion trend data (GOV.UK source); Percuity — 300,000 abortions in the UK in 2024 (January 2026)

The historical trend in England and Wales abortion statistics reveals a data series in two distinct eras. From 2014 to 2021, annual totals rose modestly and consistently — never by more than about 5,000 procedures in a single year — as long-acting reversible contraception became more widely available and demographic factors kept the childbearing-age population broadly stable. The dramatic step change in 2022 — a +17% surge to 251,377 in a single year — marked a structural inflection point. Researchers have offered multiple explanations for this acceleration: the permanent legalisation of both abortion medications taken at home (telemedicine model) from March 2022 in England and February 2022 in Wales, creating a step-change in access and reducing the barrier of clinic attendance entirely; a post-lockdown catch-up in demand; demographic shifts from rising immigration increasing the childbearing-age population; and possible behavioural changes in contraceptive use following the pandemic.

The continued +10.6% increase in 2023 confirmed that the 2022 surge was not a one-time anomaly but the beginning of a sustained higher-level plateau. At 277,970, the 2023 total represented an age-standardised rate of 23.0 per 1,000 women — the highest ever recorded under the Abortion Act and 39% above the 2014 rate of 16.5. The RCOG’s president, Dr Alison Wright, noted in response to the 2023 publication that “there is likely to be a range of factors behind the rise in abortion rates over recent years,” while stopping short of identifying any single primary driver. What the data unambiguously confirms is that the telemedicine model — under which both medications for early medical abortion can be prescribed via telephone or video consultation and dispensed by post, without any in-person clinical contact — has fundamentally changed utilisation patterns, and that the official estimates for 2024 suggest no reversal of this trend is yet visible in the data.

Abortion Method in England and Wales 2013–2023

Abortion Method Share — England and Wales (% of total)
2013 Medical  |████████████████████████            | 49%
2015 Medical  |█████████████████████████████       | 54%
2017 Medical  |████████████████████████████████    | 63%
2019 Medical  |██████████████████████████████████  | 73%
2021 Medical  |████████████████████████████████████| 87%
2023 Medical  |████████████████████████████████████| 87%
2023 Surgical |█████                               | 13%
2023 Home use |████████████████████████████████    | 72% of all abortions
              |-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------|
              0%   15%  30%  45%  60%  75%  90%

Sources: DHSC / OHID, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (15 January 2026); DHSC commentary — method of abortion trend 2013–2023; Public Health Scotland, Termination of Pregnancy Statistics — Year ending December 2024 (May 2025); RCOG response to 2023 statistics; Scottish Government Review of Abortion Law — Expert Group Report (November 2025)

The shift in abortion method in the UK is one of the most consequential structural changes in British healthcare delivery of the past decade. In 2013, surgical and medical abortions were almost evenly split — 49% medical, 51% surgical. By 2023, medical abortions accounted for 87% of all procedures in England and Wales, representing a near-total transformation in just ten years. The definitive inflection point was March 2020, when the then-temporary COVID-19 emergency measure allowing both abortion medications to be taken at home without any clinic attendance was introduced. Parliament voted to make this arrangement permanent in England in March 2022, and it had already been made permanent in Wales in February 2022. By 2023, 200,745 abortions — 72% of the total — involved both medications taken entirely at home, having been prescribed via a telehealth consultation and dispensed by post. This is the “Pills by Post” model that has fundamentally restructured who can access abortion services in England and Wales, removing geographic barriers for women in rural or remote areas who previously faced long journeys to licensed abortion clinics.

The surgical abortion rebound is a smaller but significant counter-trend: the number of surgical abortions actually increased from 27,280 in 2021 to 35,765 in 2023, having fallen sharply during COVID when in-person clinic attendance was disrupted. This reflects both a genuine recovery in clinic-based services and the fact that surgical abortion remains the necessary option for women presenting after 10 weeks of pregnancy — the gestational limit for home-based medical abortion under current regulations. Scotland has moved even further toward the medical model than England and Wales: 96.8% of all Scottish abortions in 2024 were medical, and 79.3% were early medical abortions at home. The Scottish Government’s Expert Group Review of Abortion Law, published in November 2025, explicitly acknowledged the EMAH model as a transformative access improvement, and recommended legislative reforms that would further consolidate the medical pathway as the standard of care.

Abortions by Gestation in England and Wales 2023

Gestational Age at Abortion — England and Wales 2023 (% of total)
2–9 weeks    |████████████████████████████████████████████████| 89% (248,250)
10–12 weeks  |██                                              |  4%
13–19 weeks  |███                                             |  5%
20 weeks+    |█                                               | 1–2%
             |-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------------|
             0%   10%  20%  30%  40%  50%  60%  70%  80%  90%

Sources: DHSC / OHID, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (15 January 2026); DHSC Guide to abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023; Public Health Scotland — Termination of Pregnancy Statistics Year ending December 2024

The gestational profile of UK abortions in 2023 has shifted dramatically toward earlier procedures. 89% of all England and Wales abortions in 2023 occurred before 10 weeks gestation, a figure that is 10 percentage points higher than 2013’s 79% and that directly reflects the dominance of the medical abortion pathway — Mifepristone and Misoprostol are licensed in the UK for early medical abortion up to 9 weeks and 6 days of gestation, meaning the vast majority of home-based abortions necessarily take place within the first 10 weeks. The shift from 12% in the 10–12 week group in 2013 to just 4% in 2023 confirms that the medical pathway is drawing forward the timing of intervention — women who access the telemedicine service tend to do so early in pregnancy, before the window closes for home-based medication. The proportion in the 13–19 week group has similarly contracted, from 7% to 5%, as earlier intervention becomes easier to access.

The 20 weeks and over group, accounting for between 1% and 2% of abortions throughout the period, has remained proportionally stable despite rising absolute numbers — meaning that the additional abortions taking place at later gestations are broadly in line with the overall volume increase rather than representing a disproportionate shift toward later terminations. Within this group, most abortions at 20 weeks and over are performed under Ground E (substantial risk of fetal abnormality) or Grounds F and G (risk to life), which have no gestational limit under the Abortion Act 1967 as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. The 24-week gestational limit applies only to abortions performed under Grounds A, B, C, and D — the grounds governing abortions requested for personal, social, or general health reasons. The UK’s 24-week limit is among the most permissive in Europe and has been the subject of ongoing parliamentary debate, though no substantive legislative change has been enacted as of June 2026.

UK Abortion by Age Group 2023

Abortion Rate per 1,000 Women by Age Group — England and Wales 2023
Under 16  |██████                                       | Low rate but high conception-to-abortion ratio
16–17     |████████████████████                         | Rising rate
18–19     |████████████████████████████████████         | High rate
20–24     |████████████████████████████████████████████ | HIGHEST (modal group — 26% of all)
25–29     |████████████████████████████████████         | Second highest
30–34     |████████████████████████████████             | Third
35–39     |████████████████████████                     | Rising
40–44     |███████████                                  | Lower
          |---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---------|
          (Illustrative relative rates — absolute rates in table)

Sources: DHSC / OHID, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (15 January 2026); DHSC Guide to abortion statistics 2023 (modally 20–24 imputed for missing age data); Public Health Scotland / Information Services Division via Statista — Abortion rate in Scotland 2023, by age of woman; SPUC Abortion Statistics England and Wales 2023 analysis (January 2026)

The age profile of UK abortions is consistent across all four nations, with women aged 20–24 recording the highest both in share of total abortions and in rate per 1,000 women. In England and Wales, the 20–24 age group accounts for 26% of all abortions — a share so dominant that DHSC uses it as the modal imputation group when ages are missing from HSA4 notifications. In Scotland, the 29.3 abortions per 1,000 women in the 20–24 group is higher than any other age cohort, followed by the 24.3 per 1,000 in the 25–29 group. The abortion rate increased for every age group in England and Wales between 2022 and 2023, a broad-based rise that rules out the explanation that the overall increase is driven by any single demographic. Under-16 rates, while proportionally very small, are notable for the high ratio of conceptions leading to abortion: in England and Wales, approximately 55% of conceptions in the under-16 age group result in termination rather than birth — a figure that reflects both the social context of very young pregnancies and the lack of readiness to parent at that life stage.

The repeat abortion rate is one of the most discussed statistics in UK abortion data. In England and Wales, 42% of women who had an abortion in 2023 had undergone at least one previous abortion. In Scotland, 40.99% of 2024 abortions were repeat procedures — 7,670 women who had previously terminated at least one pregnancy. These figures are consistent with international patterns and do not suggest that abortion is being used as a primary contraceptive method by most repeat patients — research consistently shows that repeat abortion patients include large numbers of women who have experienced contraceptive failure, relationship changes, or socioeconomic shifts between abortions. However, the data has been used by some commentators to argue for greater investment in long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) provision at the point of abortion, which evidence suggests significantly reduces the probability of a subsequent unintended pregnancy.

Scotland and Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics 2024

Scotland Abortion Statistics — Key Trend (2015–2024)
2015  |████████████████                     | 11.9 per 1,000 rate
2018  |██████████████████                   | ~13.0 per 1,000
2021  |████████████████████                 | 13.8 per 1,000
2022  |█████████████████████████████        | 16,607 (rate 15.9)
2023  |████████████████████████████████████ | 18,242 (rate 17.5) — then-record
2024  |█████████████████████████████████████| 18,710 (rate 17.9) — new record
      |---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---------|
      0  11,000 13,000 15,000 17,000 19,000

Sources: Public Health Scotland, Termination of Pregnancy Statistics — Year ending December 2024 (27 May 2025); Department of Health Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Abortion Statistics Publication 2023/24 (30 January 2025); Scottish Government, Review of Abortion Law in Scotland — Expert Group Report (November 2025); Right to Life UK — Scotland abortion statistics coverage (May 2025)

Scotland’s 2024 abortion data confirms a national picture of year-on-year growth, with 18,710 procedures marking a new all-time record and a rate of 17.9 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 — the highest ever documented in Scotland’s termination of pregnancy statistics. The rate has increased by more than 50% since 2015, when it stood at 11.9 per 1,000. The pace of increase slowed in 2024 compared to the sharp rises seen in 2021–2023, and Public Health Scotland noted a deceleration in the rate of increase as a notable feature of the 2024 data, alongside a finding that rates decreased in the least deprived areas while remaining high in the most deprived — widening the socioeconomic inequality in abortion rates. The termination rate in Scotland’s most deprived areas of 24.5 per 1,000 was double that of the least deprived areas at 12.2 per 1,000, confirming that unintended pregnancy and abortion access remain strongly correlated with deprivation.

Northern Ireland’s transformation since the legalisation of abortion in 2020 is one of the most dramatic statistical shifts in UK reproductive health history. From just 8 abortions in the year ending March 2019 — when the procedure was effectively illegal in almost all circumstances — to 2,792 in 2023/24 following the introduction of the Abortion (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2021 represents an extraordinary realignment. The 28% year-on-year increase from 2022/23 to 2023/24 reflects both the growing awareness of services and the continued establishment of commissioning structures for abortion care within the Northern Ireland health system, which has been slower to develop than in the rest of the UK due to political resistance. The funding scheme that allowed NI residents to access NHS-funded abortions in England and Wales ended on 31 March 2024, as it was superseded by functional local provision — though access to second-trimester and later abortions in Northern Ireland remains more limited than elsewhere in the UK.

Legal Grounds for Abortion in England, Wales, and Scotland 2026

Grounds on Which Abortions Were Performed — E&W 2023 (% of total)
Ground C (mental/physical health risk — under 24 weeks) |████████████████████████████████████████████| 98%
Ground E (fetal abnormality — no gestational limit)     |█                                           |  1.1%
Ground A (life-saving — no limit)                       |                                             | <0.1%
Ground B (grave permanent injury — no limit)            |                                             | <0.1%
                                                        |---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---------|
                                                        0%  10%  20%  30%  40%  50%  60%  70%  80%  90% 100%

Sources: DHSC / OHID, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2023 (January 2026); DHSC, Abortion statistics, England and Wales: 2022 (Ground E breakdown); SPUC analysis of 2023 statistics; Abortion Act 1967 (as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990); Scottish Government Review of Abortion Law — Expert Group Report (November 2025)

The legal grounds structure governing UK abortion has remained unchanged since the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 amended the original Abortion Act 1967. In practice, the structure is notable for how overwhelmingly it is dominated by a single ground: Ground C — the risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman — accounts for 98% of all abortions in England and Wales. The Act does not require the certifying doctors to find that the woman’s health is in imminent danger, only that continuing the pregnancy would involve greater risk to her health than terminating it — a threshold that applies to virtually all pregnancies in the context of modern medical evidence. This means that the UK’s statutory framework, which formally requires two doctors to certify a legal ground for abortion, operates in practice as a system of certified availability for virtually any abortion request made within the 24-week limit.

The 3,124 Ground E abortions in 2022 (the last year with a detailed breakdown) — and the estimated ~3,000 for 2023 — represent terminations following diagnoses of substantial risk of serious fetal abnormality. These cases have no gestational limit and are among the most medically and personally complex in the system: they typically involve parents who wanted the pregnancy, who received an adverse prenatal diagnosis — most commonly via amniocentesis, Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT), or structural anomaly scanning — and who made the decision to terminate. The Scottish Government’s Expert Group, in its November 2025 report recommending comprehensive reform of Scottish abortion law, proposed moving toward a single-doctor authorisation model — removing the two-doctor requirement that it described as a bureaucratic holdover from 1967 that has no evidence base in improving safety outcomes, and that introduces delays that are clinically unjustified. The report represents the most significant governmental review of UK abortion law since the 1990 amendments.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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