The number of births increased by 2,236 or 16.1% in Quarter 1 2022 (Q1) while there were 29 fewer deaths (0.3%) when compared with the same peiod in 2021.
There were 641 deaths due to COVID-19 in Q1 2022, accounting for 6.7% of deaths in the quarter of which 359 were male and 282 were female.
Cancer and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Ireland in Q1 2022 accounting for 5,316 (or 55.8%) of deaths compared with 4,759 (or 49.8%) in Q1 2021.
Average age of all mothers in Q1 2022 was 33.3 years, which is an increase of 0.2 years when compared with Q1 2021, while 10 years ago the average age was 31.8 years for the same period.
More than two in five (43.6%) births were outside marriage/civil partnership.
The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) has risen by 52.3% compared with the same period in 2021.
Births, Deaths and Marriages Quarter 1 2022
| Quarter 1 2022 | Quarter 1 2021 | |
| Births | 16,131 | 13,895 |
| Deaths | 9,535 | 9,564 |
| Marriages | 3,205 | 2,265 |
| Natural increase | 6,596 | 4,331 |
There is an Information Note on the CSO’s website to clarify the availability of death notifications arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explains 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. See ‘Information Note on the implications of COVID-19 on the processing of Death Certificates' for further details.
A new Information Note is also available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.
There were 8,254 male births and 7,877 female births in quarter 1 2022.The 16,131 births represent an annual birth rate of 12.9 per thousand population. An increase of 1.7 in the rate that was recorded in quarter 1 2021. See tables 4, 5A and 5B.
The average age of first time mothers was 31.7, up 0.3 years from that recorded for the same period in the previous year. The average age of all mothers at maternity for births registered in quarter 1 2022 was 33.3 years, which is up 0.2 years from that recorded in quarter 1 2021. The average age of first time mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 30.1, while the average age of all mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 31.2 years.
In the same quarter in 2021, the average age of mothers having their first baby outside marriage/civil partnership was 29.6 years while it was 30.9 years for all mothers for births registered outside of marriage/civil partnership. See tables 9A, 9B, 9C and 10.
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City with 2,041 (12.7% of total live births in the country) followed by Cork County with 1,355 (8.4%) registered births. Leitrim had the lowest number with 110 (0.7%) registered births in quarter 1 2022. The highest number of births registered in quarter 1 2021 was Dublin City which accounted for 1,360 or 9.8% of births followed by Cork County with 1,218 (8.8%). Longford had the lowest number, 117 births (0.8%), registered in quarter 1 2021. See tables 8A, 8B and Map 1.
In quarter 1 2022, there were 9,091 (56.4%) births registered as within marriage/civil partnership.
There were 7,040 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership, accounting for 43.6% of all births in quarter 1 2022. The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Waterford City at 59.4% and the lowest was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown with 27.3%. In the same quarter in 2021, there were 5,566 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership accounting for 40.1% of all births. See tables 8A and 8B and Map 2
From January 2018 onwards, where births take place within the State and the mother is residing outside the State, the area of residence of the mother is recorded as outside the State. Prior to quarter 1, 2018, cases where the mother was residing outside the State, the mother's area of residence was assigned to the location where the birth took place within the State.
There were 10 babies born to mothers who were resident outside the Republic of Ireland in quarter 1 2022. This accounts for 0.06% of total live births registered in the quarter. See tables 5A, 5B, 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 9C and 10.
Of the 16,131 births in quarter 1 2022, there were 12,508 babies (77.5%) born to mothers of Irish nationality compared to 10,971 (79.0%) in quarter 1 2021. See table 11.
A total of 6,309 births (39.1%) were to first time mothers in quarter 1 2022 while 5,582 (34.6%) were to second time mothers. These accounted for a total of 73.7% of births of stated parity in quarter 1 2022. See table 6 and figure 2.
There were 9,535 deaths registered in quarter 1 2022, of these 4,964 were male and 4,571 were female. The quarter 1 2022 total is 0.3% less than the corresponding quarter of 2021 when 9,564 deaths were registered. See table 12.
There were 43 infant deaths registered in quarter 1 2022 giving an infant mortality rate of 2.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, no change on that recorded in quarter 1 of 2021. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks. There were 34 neonatal deaths registered in quarter 1 2022, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 2.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, which was a decrease of 0.1 from quarter 1 2021. See tables 3, 4 and figure 3.
| Under 1 yr rates | infant | neonatal |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 2019 | 3.3 | 2.6 |
| Q2 2019 | 3.3 | 2.4 |
| Q3 2019 | 3 | 2.3 |
| Q4 2019 | 3.1 | 2.4 |
| Q1 2020 | 2.9 | 2.2 |
| Q2 2020 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
| Q3 2020 | 2.5 | 1.7 |
| Q4 2020 | 2.9 | 2.2 |
| Q1 2021 | 2.7 | 2.2 |
| Q2 2021 | 2.5 | 2 |
| Q3 2021 | 3.1 | 2.4 |
| Q4 2021 | 3.8 | 2.8 |
| Q1 2022 | 2.7 | 2.1 |
Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,596 deaths, or an annual rate of 2.1 per 1,000 population. Of these, 1,116 were due to ischaemic heart disease and 480 to cerebrovascular disease. See tables 2a, 2b, 13, 14 and figure 4.
There were 2,720 deaths from malignant neoplasms. This is equivalent to an annual rate of 2.2 per 1,000 population. See tables 2a, 2b, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 441, pneumonia accounted for 210 deaths and 332 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases. See tables 2a, 2b, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
There were 277 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes. Accidents accounted for 71.5% (198) of these deaths while suicides accounted for 26.4% (73). This figure of 73 reflects an increase of 102.8.% from the same quarter of 2021. Of these suicide deaths, 82.2.% (60) were male. See tables 2a, 2b, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
All unnatural deaths, which includes deaths from intentional self-harm, must be referred to the Coroner's Office. However, the Coroner's Court did not hold public hearings at various stages over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a consequence of the restrictions imposed. This would impact on the number of deaths registered and subsequently assigned an Underlying Cause of Death of intentional self-harm. Users should bear this in mind when comparing percentage increases/decreases from 2021-2022 quarterly results.
Deaths assigned an Underlying Cause of Death of External causes of injury and poisoning (including deaths from road traffic accidents and deaths from intentional self-harm), are likely to be underrepresented as such deaths are reported to the Coroner’s Office for further investigation. This can then result in such deaths being registered late (more than three months after the date of occurrence) and therefore have not yet been reported to the CSO. In addition, public hearings in the Coroner's Court have also been limited as a consequence of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this may also have resulted in deaths being registered late.
In Quarter 1 2022, there were 563 deaths due to dementia of which 358 (or 63.6%) were female. There were 148 deaths due to Alzheimer's of which 90 (or 60.8%) were female. See tables 18 and 19.
There were 641 deaths due to COVID-19 recorded in quarter 1 2022, 359 of which were male and 282 which were female. Of these, 435 (67.9%) were aged 75 and over.
In all 641 of these COVID-19 deaths the virus was identified while there were no deaths where the virus was not identified. See tables 20, 21 and WHO ICD-10 classification of COVID-19 and WHO emergency use ICD codes for COVID-19 disease outbreak
It is important to note that there will be a number of deaths where COVID-19 will not be assigned as the Underlying Cause of Death (UCOD) and therefore, the COVID-19 deaths in this analysis, will vary from those put into the public domain by the Department of Health. This is because the figures published in the Vital Statistics quarterly releases are based on the narrative of cause of death that is reported, in electronic format, on the death certificate once the death is registered with the General Registration Office (GRO) and subsequently forwarded to the CSO for processing. All deaths that are registered are assigned an Underlying Cause of Death in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). This UCOD is assigned using the WHO selection rules and is dependent on the hierarchy of diseases or conditions and their placement on the medical death certificate. There are also instances where COVID-19 is mentioned in the narrative of the death certificate but where the UCOD is not COVID-19.
The mean average age of death was 78.6 years while the median age was 80.7 years for all deaths due to COVID-19 in quarter 1 2022.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | Principal causes of death Q1 2022 (%) |
|---|---|
| Circulatory | 27.22600944 |
| External | 2.905086523 |
| COVID-19 | 6.722600944 |
| Respiratory | 10.30938647 |
| Malignant Cancer | 28.52648138 |
| Remainder | 24.31043524 |
The leading cause of death in quarter 1 2022 varied widely by age-group. For those aged from 15 to 34 years, external causes of death including accidents, suicide and other ranked first (43 deaths). Among individuals aged 35-74, malignant neoplasms (cancer) was the leading cause (1,263), while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the circulatory system (1,983 deaths). See table 14.
There were 8,013 deaths of persons aged 65 and over registered in quarter 1 2022. This represents an annual death rate of 43.2 per 1,000 population aged 65 and over and represents a decrease of 2.3 when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2021. See tables 3, 4 and figure 5.
The average (mean) time-lag between the date of death and the registration of death was 58 days while the median (mid-point in data) was 32 days for quarter 1 2022
The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 1 2022 was 6,596. This represents a rate of 5.3 per 1,000 population, 1.8 more than quarter 1 2021. See tables 3, 4 and figure 1.
The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 3,205 of which 75 were same-sex marriages. This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 2.6 per 1,000 population, an increase of 0.8 from quarter 1 2021. See tables 3 and 4.
Same-sex marriage legislation came into effect on the 16th November 2015.
The estimated population (usual residence) in August 2021 was 5,011,460.
| X-axis label | Cancer | Disease of the circulatory system | Disease of the respiratory system | COVID-19 | Accident, suicide, homicide and undetermined | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 12.0689655172414 | 0 | 3.44827586206897 | 0 | 0 | 84.4827586206897 |
| 15-34 | 22.2222222222222 | 9.09090909090909 | 4.04040404040404 | 5.05050505050505 | 43.4343434343434 | 16.1616161616162 |
| 35-74 | 42.8135593220339 | 20.4745762711864 | 6.84745762711864 | 6.8135593220339 | 4.67796610169492 | 18.3728813559322 |
| 75 and over | 22.2153080273802 | 30.849408836341 | 12.0566272557561 | 6.76726820161792 | 1.4934660858743 | 26.6179215930305 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 August 2022) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2022 Release.
Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division, said: “The number of deaths in Quarter 1 2022 decreased by 29 or 0.3% compared with the same period last year. There were 641 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for one in fifteen (6.7%) of all deaths in the period.
Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Q1 2022 and accounted for more than half (55.8%) of all deaths.
Looking at births, we can see the number of births has increased by 2,236 (or 16.1%) when compared with the same quarter in the previous year, up from 13,895 in Q1 2021 to 16,131 in Q1 2022. Births to teenage mothers increased from 179 in Q1 2021 to 194 in Q1 2022.
The average age of mothers was 33.3 in Q1 2022, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2021, while 10 years ago the average age was 31.8 years for the same period.
More than two in five (43.6%) of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 40.1% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q1 2012, this proportion was more than one in three (35.9%) births.
The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q1 2022 was 6,596 an increase of 52.3% on the same period in 2021 when it was 4,331.”