Important Notice: Information on occurrence of births and deaths is only available for those which have been registered and does not apply to births and deaths which are yet to be registered. As such, birth and death occurrence statistics in this publication are provisional and subject to further revision as births and deaths continue to be registered. Statistics in more recent quarters are more likely to be subject to revision.
Furthermore, births are more likely to be registered in a timelier manner than deaths due to variations in reporting time requirements.
As the occurred life event series are not directly comparable to registered life event series, it is possible for the number of occurred life events in a time period to exceed the number of registered life events in a time period, and vice versa. See Statistician's Comment below for more.
The number of births decreased by 2,163 or 13.4% in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2023 while there were 670 more deaths (7.0%) when compared with the same period in 2022.
There were 307 deaths due to COVID-19 in Q1 2023, accounting for 3.0% of deaths in the quarter of which 167 were male and 140 were female.
Cancer and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Ireland in Q1 2023 accounting for 5,534 (or 54.2%) of deaths compared with 5,316 (or 55.8%) in Q1 2022.
The average age of all mothers in Q1 2023 was 33.2 years, which is a decrease from 33.3 years as recorded in Q1 2022, while 10 years ago the average age was 32.1 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.6%) births were outside marriage/civil partnership in Q1 2023.
The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) decreased by 43.0% in Q1 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.
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 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.
From Q1 2023, the Vital Statistics quarterly publications will provide an additional breakdown of registered births and deaths by occurrence by quarter. Prior to Q1 2023, all data was classified by quarter of registration. Please see Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2023 Summary Results below.
Please note, all other statistics bar those presented in the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2023 Summary Results Table are based off registration data and not occurrence data.
| 1A Vital Statistics by quarter of registration1 | Quarter 1 2023 | Quarter 1 2022 |
| Births | 13,968 | 16,131 |
| Deaths | 10,205 | 9,535 |
| Marriages | 3,425 | 3,205 |
| Natural increase | 3,763 | 6,596 |
| 1B Q1 2023 registered births and deaths by quarter of occurrence2 | Birth Occurrences | Death Occurrences |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 9,299 | 6,062 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 4,504 | 3,292 |
| Quarter 3 2022 | 122 | 439 |
| Quarter 2 2022 | 28 | 283 |
| Quarter 1 2022 | 15 | 129 |
| 1C Births by quarter of registration and occurrence | Birth Registrations | Birth Occurrences (Provisional)3 |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 13,968 | 13,036 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 12,869 | 13,627 |
| Quarter 3 2022 | 14,091 | 14,168 |
| Quarter 2 2022 | 14,449 | 13,022 |
| Quarter 1 2022 | 16,131 | 13,622 |
| Quarter 4 2021 | 16,250 | 15,633 |
| Quarter 3 2021 | 16,747 | 15,860 |
| Quarter 2 2021 | 11,551 | 14,550 |
| Quarter 1 2021 | 13,895 | 14,532 |
| 1D Deaths by quarter of registration and occurrence | Death Registrations | Death Occurrences (Provisional)4 |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 10,205 | 8,413 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 8,149 | 9,212 |
| Quarter 3 2022 | 8,467 | 7,917 |
| Quarter 2 2022 | 9,326 | 8,537 |
| Quarter 1 2022 | 9,535 | 8,858 |
| Quarter 4 2021 | 8,626 | 9,229 |
| Quarter 3 2021 | 8,165 | 7,898 |
| Quarter 2 2021 | 6,700 | 7,651 |
| Quarter 1 2021 | 9,564 | 10,037 |
| 1 The number of Births and Deaths which were registered in the quarter. | ||
| 2 These figures show the quarter in which Births and Deaths registered in Q1 2023 occurred. This does not include births and deaths which are yet to be registered. | ||
| 3 Please note the occurrence figures relate to a point in time and are subject to change as further registrations are lodged with the GRO. They do not include births and deaths which are yet to be registered. | ||
| 4 Please note the occurrence figures relate to a point in time and are subject to change as further registrations are lodged with the GRO. They do not include births and deaths which are yet to be registered. | ||
There were 7,098 male births and 6,870 female births in quarter 1 2023. The 13,968 births represent an annual birth rate of 11.0 per thousand population. This is a decrease of 1.9 in the birth rate when compared to that in Q1 2022. See tables 3, 4 and 5.
The average age of first time mothers was 31.6, down 0.1 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 2023 was 33.2 years, which is down 0.1 from quarter 1 2022. The average age of first time mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 29.7, while the average age of all mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 31.0 years.
In the same quarter in 2022, the average age of mothers having their first baby outside marriage/civil partnership was 30.1 years while it was 31.2 years for all mothers for births registered outside of marriage/civil partnership. See tables 6, 7, 8, 9 and Map 1.
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City with 1,663 (12% of total live births) followed by Cork County with 1,177 (8.4%) registered births. Leitrim had the lowest number with 100 (0.7%) registered births in quarter 1 2023. The highest number of births registered in quarter 1 2022 was Dublin City which accounted for 2,041 or 13% of births followed by Cork County with 1,355 (8.4%). Leitrim had the lowest number, 110 births (0.7%), registered in quarter 1 2022. See tables 10, 11 and Map 2.
In quarter 1 2023, there were 8,022 (57%) births registered as within marriage/civil partnership.
There were 5,946 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership, accounting for 43% of all births in quarter 1 2023. The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Limerick City at 54% and the lowest was in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with 29.4%. In the same quarter in 2022, there were 7,040 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership accounting for 44% of all births. See tables 12, 13 and Map 3.
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 14 babies born to mothers who were resident outside the Republic of Ireland in quarter 1 2023. This accounts for 0.1% of total live births registered in the quarter. See tables 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
A total of 5,796 births (42%) were to first time mothers in quarter 1 2023 while 4,696 (34%) were to second time mothers. These accounted for a total of 75% of births of stated parity in quarter 1 2023. See table 14 and figure 2.
Of the 13,968 births in quarter 1 2023, there were 10,469 babies (75%) born to mothers of Irish nationality compared to 12,508 (78%) in quarter 1 2022. See table 15.
There were 10,205 deaths registered in quarter 1 2023, of these 5,211 were male and 4,994 were female. The quarter 1 2023 total is 7% more than the corresponding quarter of 2022 when 9,535 deaths were registered. See table 16.
Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,779 deaths, or an annual rate of 2.2 per 1,000 population. Of these, 1,159 were due to ischaemic heart disease and 491 to cerebrovascular disease. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20 and figure 3.
There were 2,755 deaths from malignant neoplasms. This is equivalent to an annual rate of 2.2 per 1,000 population. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 641, pneumonia accounted for 273 deaths and 479 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | Principal causes of death Q1 2023 (%) |
|---|---|
| Circulatory | 27.2317491425772 |
| External | 2.96913277804998 |
| COVID-19 | 3.00832925036747 |
| Respiratory | 13.6501714845664 |
| Malignant Cancer | 26.9965703086722 |
| Remainder | 26.1440470357668 |
There were 303 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes. Accidents accounted for 71% (215) of these deaths while suicides accounted for 22% (66). This figure of 66 reflects a decrease of 9.6% from the same quarter of 2022. Of these suicide deaths, 73% (48) were male. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
All unnatural deaths, which includes deaths from intentional self-harm, must be referred to the Coroner's Office. 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.
There were 43 infant deaths registered in quarter 1 2023 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, an increase of 0.4 on the rate recorded in quarter 1 of 2022. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks. There were 31 neonatal deaths registered in quarter 1 2023, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 2.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is an increase of 0.1 on the rate recorded in quarter 1 2022. See tables 1, 2, 23 and figure 4.
| Under 1 yr rates | infant | neonatal |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Q2 2022 | 3.5 | 2.3 |
| Q3 2022 | 4 | 3.1 |
| Q4 2022 | 3.2 | 2.3 |
| Q12023 | 3.1 | 2.2 |
In Quarter 1 2023, there were 693 deaths due to dementia of which 436 (or 63%) were female. There were 169 deaths due to Alzheimer's of which 120 (or 71%) were female. See tables 24 and 25.
There were 307 deaths due to COVID-19 recorded in quarter 1 2023, 167 of which were male and 140 which were female. Of these, 239 (78%) were aged 75 and over.
In all 307 of these COVID-19 deaths the virus was identified while there were no deaths where the virus was not identified. See tables 26, 27 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 81.7 years while the median age was 83.9 years for all deaths due to COVID-19 in quarter 1 2023.
The leading cause of death in quarter 1 2023 varied widely by age-group. For those aged from 15 to 34 years, external causes of death including accidents, suicide and other ranked first (40 deaths). Among individuals aged 35-74, malignant neoplasms (cancer) was the leading cause (1,288), while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the circulatory system (2,187 deaths). See table 20.
There were 8,784 deaths of persons aged 65 and over registered in quarter 1 2023. This represents an annual death rate of 45.7 per 1,000 population aged 65 and over and represents an increase of 2.5 when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2022. See tables 1, 2 and figure 5.
The average (mean) time-lag between the date of death and the registration of death was 47 days while the median (mid-point in data) was 24 days for quarter 1 2023.
| X-axis label | Cancer | Disease of the circulatory system | Disease of the respiratory system | COVID-19 | Accident, suicide, homicide and undetermined | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15.1515151515152 | 0 | 1.51515151515152 | 0 | 1.51515151515152 | 81.8181818181818 |
| 15-34 | 13.7931034482759 | 8.04597701149425 | 1.14942528735632 | 0 | 45.9770114942529 | 31.0344827586207 |
| 35-74 | 44.034188034188 | 20 | 9.81196581196581 | 2.32478632478632 | 4.47863247863248 | 19.3504273504273 |
| 75 and over | 20.2750105233619 | 30.6861231934895 | 15.4903886628315 | 3.3534446471166 | 1.83808053879613 | 28.3569524344044 |
The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 1 2023 was 3,763. This represents a rate of 3.0 per 1,000 population, 2.3 per 1,000 less than the quarter 1 2022 rate of 5.3 per 1,000. See tables 1, 2 and figure 1.
The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 3,425 of which 93 were same-sex marriages. This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 2.7 per 1,000 population, a decrease of 0.1 from quarter 1 2022. See tables 1 and 2.
Same-sex marriage legislation came into effect on the 16th November 2015.
The estimated population (usual residence) in April 2022 was 5,100,229.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 August 2023) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2023 Release.
Commenting on the release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Section, said: "The CSO publishes quarterly and annual Vital Statistics data on life events such as births, deaths, and marriages. This data is based on information provided to the General Register Office (GRO) and shared with the CSO in order to produce statistics which provide insights and trend analysis on these key events.
In Ireland, people have up to three months to register a birth or death, and in some cases up to and over 12 months. This means these events may have occurred in a different quarter to the one they are officially registered in.
The CSO constantly reviews how we produce statistics and in order to provide more context to users on when these events occurred, the CSO has expanded the Summary Results table from Q1 2023. This means that as well as providing the numbers of births and deaths registered for the quarter relevant to the publication, the CSO will now also publish data on the actual quarter in which these registered births and deaths occurred. Due to the divergence between when an event occurs and when it is registered, occurrence statistics are provisional and subject to revision. Occurrence statistics exclude births and deaths which are yet to be registered. Furthermore, due to variations in the administrative registration process for births and deaths, occurred death statistics will likely be subject to larger revisions than occurred birth statistics. Likewise, occurrence statistics for the most recent quarters are more likely to be revised as births and deaths continued to be registered.
The expanded Summary Results table will also provide quarterly figures on births and deaths in terms of registration and occurrence. The occurrence data in these tables should be considered provisional as it is subject to updates when more information is received by the GRO and made available to the CSO (See Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2023 Summary Results).
Summary Results table contents
1A Vital Statistics by quarter of registration: Relates to the Births, Deaths and Marriages which have been registered for Q1 2023.
1B Q1 2023 registered births and deaths by quarter of occurrence: Provides a breakdown of when the births and deaths registered for Q1 2023 occurred.
1C Births by quarter of registration and occurrence: Provides figures for the number of registered births for a quarter and allows a comparison of the current number of births which have occurred to date for any given quarter. Please note these occurrence figures are subject to change as more data becomes available.
1D Deaths by quarter of registration and occurrence: Provides figures for the number of registered deaths for a quarter and allows a comparison of the current number of deaths which have occurred to date for any given quarter. Please note these occurrence figures are subject to change as more data becomes available.
Overall Results
Of the 13,968 births which were registered in January, February, and March (Q1) 2023, 66.6% or 9,299 births occurred in that quarter. Of the 10,205 deaths registered for the same period, 6,062 or 59.4% occurred in Q1 2023. In total, 98.8% of births registered in Q1 2023 occurred either in Q1 2023 or in October, November, and December (Q4) 2022, while for deaths, 91.7% registered in Q1 2023 occurred in either Q1 2023 or Q4 2022.
Deaths
Using the registration figures available to us, the number of deaths in Quarter 1 2023 increased by 670 or 7.0% compared with the same period last year. There were 307 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for one in thirty-three (3.0%) of all deaths in the period.
Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Q1 2023 and accounted for more than half (54.2%) of all deaths.
Births
Looking at births, we can see the number of births has decreased by 2,163 (or 13.4%) when compared with the same quarter in the previous year, down from 16,131 in Q1 2022 to 13,968 in Q1 2023.
Births to mother's aged less than twenty increased slightly from 194 in Q1 2022 to 195 in Q1 2023. The average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q1 2023, which is a decrease from 33.3 that was reported in the same quarter in 2022, while 10 years ago the average age was 32.1 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.6%) births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared with the same quarter a year earlier when 43.6% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q1 2013, this proportion was more than one in three (36.5%) births.
The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q1 2023 was 3,763 a decrease of 43.0% on the same period in 2022 when it was 6,596."