In the last eight years, 15 girls of ten – still at primary school – and 39 aged 11 were found to be expecting.

Around 300 aged 13 or under get pregnant every year in England and Wales. And since 2002 there have been 63,487 pregnancies among under-15s – almost 23 every day.

The shocking figures were released after a Freedom of Information request by The Sun. They show that since 2002, there have been 268 pregnant girls aged 12, 2,527 aged 13, 14,777 aged 14 and 45,861 aged 15.

Up until now, the youngest girl reported to be pregnant in the UK conceived aged 11 in Scotland and gave birth aged 12.

The true number of children who fall pregnant could be even higher as there is no way of adding illegal abortions and miscarriages to the data.

Government statistics show 60 per cent of under-age pregnant girls have an abortion.

Among the youngest, this figure is thought to be much higher.

But there is no breakdown by age for abortions or births in the statistics – nor the circumstances in which girls became pregnant.

Similar figures for boys becoming fathers are not available as it is often hard to prove who is the real dad.

Britain has one of Europe’s highest under-16 pregnancy rates. Ministers have unsuccessfully poured millions into schemes to tackle the problem.

Sociology Professor Frank Furedi, from the University of Kent, said the figures were “tragic”.

He added: “They show the consequences of the sexualisation of childhood.”

Norman Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said: “There are far too many schools telling children they are entitled to become sexually active when it is ‘right for them’.”

Anastasia de Waal, of think tank Civitas, said: “We have kids behaving as adults, not realising the complications.

“Often the girls feel they have to have sex to please their older boyfriends.”

A recent study found the London boroughs of Lewisham, Southwark and Lambeth had the highest under-age pregnancy rates in Britain.