The birth rate in England and Wales has fallen to a record low at the same time that abortion rate reached its highest ever.

Official figures show there were 657,076 live births last year or 11.1 per 1,000 people, the lowest rate since records began in 1938.

Separate figures showed there is one abortion for almost every three live births, giving an abortion rate of almost 1 in 4 according to the usual way of calculating the rate that excludes still births and natural miscarriages.

Earlier last week, Prince Harry announced he and his wife Meghan would have no more than two children to limit their environmental impact. Robin Maynard, director of campaign group Population Matters, said the declining birth rate was “good news for the UK”.

“People understand that a higher population means more pressure on the NHS and schools, more land being consumed for more housing that is more difficult for people to afford, more traffic and a lower quality of life. They recognise that it puts our environment under threat,” he added.

Record low birth rates are also occurring in other countries around the world. The number of births in Italy last year was the lowest since records began in 1861. Also last year, Japan produced the smallest number of births since records began in 1899.

China also saw the lowest number of births since 1961, when the country was in the last year of the three-year Great Famine precipitated by Mao’s Cultural Revolution, in which up to 30 million people died and birth rates crashed. The Chinese figures occurred despite the communist authorities in 2015 doubling the number of children couples could have and launching a campaign to incentivise having more children.