Press Statement

Preasráiteas

26 November 2021

Go to release: Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2021

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 November 2021) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 2 2021 Release. 

Commenting on the release, Brian Ring, Senior Statistician, said: “The number of deaths in Quarter 2 2021 decreased by 1,882 or 21.9% compared to the same period last year. There were 501 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for almost one-fifth (7.5%) of all deaths in the period.

Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease accounted for almost three fifths (57.4%) of all deaths. 

The number of births has fallen by 1,976 (or 14.6%) from the same quarter in the previous year, down from 13,527 in Q2 2020 to 11,551 in 2021. Births to teenage mothers also continue to fall, down from 188 in Q2 2020 to 142 in the current quarter. 

The average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q2 2021, which is an increase of 0.1 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 31.8 years for the same period.

More than a third (40.9%) of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 37.8% of births were to mothers outside of marriage.

The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q2 2021 was 4,851 a decrease of 1.9% on the same period in 2020 when it was 4,945.”

The CSO has provided information to clarify the availability of death notifications arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the timing of the release of these statistics as death notifications in Ireland can be registered up to three months after the date of death. Please refer to the previously published ‘Information Note on the implications of COVID-19 on the processing of Death Certificates' for further details.

A new Information Note is available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.

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