Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 2 2009

There were 18,844 births registered in the second quarter of 2009, a decrease of just over 1% in the number of births registered in the corresponding quarter of 2008. The number of births registered in quarter 2 2009 remains high, the fourth highest number recorded in a quarter in recent years.

These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office’s Vital Statistics Second Quarter report.

Births in the second quarter of 2009 represented an annual birth rate of 16.9 per 1,000 population. The rate for the corresponding quarter of 2008 was 17.2 per 1,000 population and 14.6 per 1,000 population in quarter 2 2000. In quarter 2 2009, Fingal recorded the highest birth rate of 22.1 per 1,000 population, while County Monaghan recorded the lowest birth rate of 13.2 per 1,000 population.

Of the 18,844 births, there were 6,114 births registered as outside marriage. This accounted for 32.4% of all births. Of these, 3,802 births were to unmarried parents with the same address, 20% of all births. The highest percentage of births outside marriage occurred in Limerick city at 53%, while the lowest percentage occurred in County Leitrim at 19%.

Births to first time mothers (7,858) accounted for 42% of all births and second time mothers (6,011) accounted for a further 32% of births. The average age of mothers was 31.3 years. Dun Laoighaire Rathdown recorded the highest average age of mothers at 33.0 years, while Limerick city recorded the lowest average age of mothers, 29.3 years. The average age of mothers having their first child was 29.1 years.

There were 7,020 deaths registered in quarter 2 2009, a decrease of over 7% in the number of deaths registered in the second quarter of 2008. The quarter 2 2009 total represents a death rate of 6.3 per 1,000 population. This compares with 6.8 per 1,000 population in 2008 and 8.1 per 1,000 population in 2000.

For those aged 65 and over, the annual death rate was 43.3 per 1,000 population (5,356 deaths). This compares with a rate of 48.6 per 1,000 population for the corresponding quarter of 2008, an improvement of almost 11%. The improvement in this rate since 2000 was 23%.

There were 52 infant deaths registered in quarter 2 2009 giving an infant mortality rate of 2.8 deaths per 1,000 live births. The corresponding rate in quarter 2 2008 was 4.7 per 1,000 live births and was 5.6 per 1,000 live births in 2000. The number of neonatal deaths (deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks) in quarter 2 2009 was 41, 2.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Over one third (34%) of all deaths in the quarter were attributed to circulatory disease (2,374), while 29% were attributed to malignant neoplasms (2,024), 13% to respiratory diseases (904) and 6% to external causes (441).

The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 2 2009 was 11,824. This represents a rate of 10.6 per 1,000 population, 0.2 above quarter 2 2008 and 4.1 above quarter 2 2000.

There were 5,342 marriages registered in quarter 2 2009, 28 less than the corresponding quarter of 2008 and an increase of 672 from the number of marriages registered in quarter 2 2000.

Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2009 is priced at €6.00 and is available on our website

www.cso.ie (PDF 539KB) (PDF 538KB)

Hard copies available from the:

Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork,

Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2,

or through any bookseller.

For more information contact Sandra Tobin (LoCall 1890 313 414 ext 5307).

Internet address: http://www.cso.ie

Central Statistics Office                                                                     28 January 2010

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