MORE children are being baptised later as their parents seek to get them into popular Catholic schools, it is claimed.

Baptisms of English and Welsh children over the age of one made up 30.3 per cent of all baptisms in 2005, with most aged 13 and under. In 1958, the comparable figure was just 5.4 per cent, the Pastoral Research Centre Trust said.

By contrast, traditional baptisms of babies under one fell from 85 per cent to 64 per cent of all baptisms.

Tony Spencer, from the trust, believed the rise in late baptisms was fuelled by lapsed or `marginal' Catholics who were attempting to ensure a place for their children at oversubscribed Catholic schools.

He said: "We are now in a situation where because of the 1959 Education Act, by the time you reached the 1970s, Catholic schools were no longer impoverished, and they were becoming good, very good and excellent schools.

"Because of that, the demand for places increased, not only from Catholics but from the rest of the community."

The trust says the baptised Catholic population of England and Wales rose by 20 per cent between 1958 to 2005 - from 3.49 million to 4.197 million, although there was a 23 per cent fall in baptised Catholics using the church for baptisms, marriages and funerals between 1959 and 2005.

Oona Stannard, director of the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales, said the Church should be reassured that people still seek baptism for their children even when it may be later.

She said: "Childhood mortality is now better, there is more transience in people's lives. Such factors may well influence the urgency with which parents pursue baptism and yes, there may well be some who as the baby grows up give more careful consideration to the question of education."