The number of births increased by 546 or 4.2% in Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023 to 13,415 registrations. There were 8,186 deaths registered in the same period, which was 37 more deaths (0.5%) when compared with the same period in 2022. Care should be taken when interpreting these figures. (See Statistician's Comment below for more detail).
There were 145 deaths due to COVID-19 in Q4 2023, accounting for 1.8% of deaths in the quarter of which 78 were male and 67 were female.
Cancer and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Ireland in Q4 2023 accounting for 4,624 (or 56.5%) of deaths compared with 4,599 (or 56.4%) in Q4 2022.
The average age of all mothers in Q4 2023 was 33.3 years, up slightly from 33.2 years recorded in Q4 2022. The average age of all mothers 10 years ago was 32.2 years for the same quarter.
Just under two in five (39.4%) births were outside marriage/civil partnership in Q4 2023.
The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) grew by 10.8% in Q4 2023 compared with the same period in 2022.
Important Notice: Information on occurrence of births and deaths is only available for these life events which have been registered. Births are more likely to be registered in a timelier manner than deaths due to variations in reporting time requirements to the General Registers Office (GRO).
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 as more life events are registered.
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.
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 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 Q4 2023 Summary Results below.
Please note, all other statistics bar those presented in the Vital Statistics Quarter 4 2023 Summary Results Table are based off registration data and not occurrence data.
| 1A Vital Statistics by quarter of registration1 | Quarter 4 2023 | Quarter 4 2022 |
| Births | 13,415 | 12,869 |
| Deaths | 8,186 | 8,149 |
| Marriages | 4,812 | 5,159 |
| Natural increase | 5,229 | 4,720 |
| 1B Q4 2023 registered births and deaths by quarter of occurrence2 | Birth Occurrences | Death Occurrences |
| Quarter 4 2023 | 9,535 | 5,041 |
| Quarter 3 2023 | 3,749 | 1,780 |
| Quarter 2 2023 | 96 | 537 |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 22 | 425 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 9 | 193 |
| 1C Births by quarter of registration and occurrence | Birth Registrations | Birth Occurrences (Provisional)3 |
| Quarter 4 2023 | 13,415 | 14,015 |
| Quarter 3 2023 | 13,848 | 14,009 |
| Quarter 2 2023 | 13,447 | 13,295 |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 13,968 | 13,099 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 12,869 | 13,648 |
| Quarter 3 2022 | 14,091 | 14,176 |
| Quarter 2 2022 | 14,449 | 13,031 |
| Quarter 1 2022 | 16,131 | 13,622 |
| Quarter 4 2021 | 16,250 | 15,637 |
| 1D Deaths by quarter of registration and occurrence | Death Registrations | Death Occurrences (Provisional)4 |
| Quarter 4 2023 | 8,186 | 8,073 |
| Quarter 3 2023 | 8,319 | 7,632 |
| Quarter 2 2023 | 8,749 | 8,056 |
| Quarter 1 2023 | 10,205 | 9,401 |
| Quarter 4 2022 | 8,149 | 9,728 |
| Quarter 3 2022 | 8,467 | 8,143 |
| Quarter 2 2022 | 9,326 | 8,686 |
| Quarter 1 2022 | 9,535 | 8,976 |
| Quarter 4 2021 | 8,626 | 9,345 |
| 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 Q4 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 6,915 male births and 6,500 female births in Q4 2023. The 13,415 births represent an annual birth rate of 10.2 per thousand population. This birth rate remains the same as that in Q4 2022 (See Tables 2, 4 and 5).
The average age of first-time mothers was 31.8 years, this is up slightly from 31.5 in Q4 2022. The average age of all mothers at maternity for births registered in Q4 2023 was 33.3 years, which is up 0.1 from Q4 2022 (See Tables 8, 9, 12, 13 and Map 1).
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City with 1,457 (10.9% of total live births) followed by Cork County with 1,190 (8.9%) registered births. Leitrim had the lowest number with 94 (0.7%) registered births in Q4 2023. The highest number of births registered in Q4 2022 was Dublin City which accounted for 1,549 or 12% of births followed by Cork County with 1,155 (9.0%). Leitrim had the lowest number, 80 births (0.6%), registered in Q4 2022 (See Tables 10, 11 and Map 2).
In Q4 2023, there were 8,136 (61%) births registered as within marriage/civil partnership.
There were 5,279 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership, accounting for 39% of all births in Q4 2023. The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Limerick City at 52% while the lowest was in Galway City at 27%. In the same quarter in 2022, there were 5,296 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership accounting for 41% of all births (See Tables 10, 11 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 Q1 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 13 babies born to mothers who were resident outside the Republic of Ireland in Q4 2023. This accounts for 0.1% of total live births registered in the quarter (See Tables 6 and 7).
A total of 5,693 births (42%) were to first-time mothers in Q4 2023 while 4,579 (34%) were to second-time mothers. These accounted for a total of 76% of births of stated parity in Q4 2023 (See Table 14 and Figure 2).
Of the 13,415 births in Q4 2023, there were 9,955 babies (74%) born to mothers of Irish nationality compared with 9,576 (74%) in Q4 2022 (See Table 15).
There were 8,186 deaths registered in Q4 2023, and of these, 4,326 were male and 3,860 were female. The Q4 2023 total was 0.5% more than the corresponding quarter of 2022 when 8,149 deaths were registered (See Table 16).
Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,277 deaths (28% of the total in Q4 2023), or an annual rate of 1.7 per 1,000 population. Of these, 1,018 were due to ischaemic heart disease and 378 to cerebrovascular disease (See Tables 17, 18, 19, 20 and Figure 3).
There were 2,347 deaths from malignant neoplasms (29% of total deaths in Q4 2023). This is equivalent to an annual rate of 1.8 per 1,000 population (See Tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22).
Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 398, while pneumonia accounted for 213 deaths and 278 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases. As a whole, respiratory diseases accounted for 11% of total deaths in Q4 2023 (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 having not yet been reported to the CSO.
There were 414 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes in Q4 2023. Accidents accounted for 73% (303) of these deaths while suicides accounted for 22% (93). Of these suicide deaths, 82% (76) were male. As a whole, accidents, suicides and other external causes accounted for 5.1% of total deaths in Q4 2023 (See Tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22).
In Q4 2023, there were 2,256 deaths due to other causes not part of the four categories mentioned above, or 28% of the total. This includes deaths due to COVID-19 which accounted for 1.8% of total deaths (See Tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 26 and Map 4).
There were 44 infant deaths registered in Q4 2023 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, an increase of 0.1 on the rate recorded in Q4 of 2022. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants aged under 4 weeks. There were 33 neonatal deaths registered in Q4 2023, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 2.5 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is an increase of 0.2 on the rate recorded in Q4 2022 (See Tables 1, 2, 23 and Figure 4).
In Quarter 4 2023, there were 478 deaths due to dementia of which 282 (or 59%) were female. There were 141 deaths due to Alzheimer's of which 89 (or 63%) were female (See Tables 24 and 25).
There were 145 deaths due to COVID-19 recorded in Q4 2023, 78 of which were male and 67 of which were female. Of these, 132 (91%) were aged 75 and over.
In all 145 of these COVID-19 deaths, the virus was identified and there were no COVID-19 deaths in the quarter where the virus was not identified (See Tables 26 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 leading cause of death in Q4 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 (63 deaths). Among individuals aged 35-74, neoplasms were the leading cause (1,138), while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the circulatory system (1,673 deaths) (See Table 20).
There were 6,740 deaths of persons aged 65 and over registered in Q4 2023. This represents an annual death rate of 33.4 per 1,000 population aged 65 and over and represents a decrease of 0.9 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 68 days while the median (mid-point in data) was 20 days for Q4 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 | 3.44827586206897 | 1.72413793103448 | 1.72413793103448 | 0 | 5.17241379310345 | 87.9310344827586 |
| 15-34 | 14.0495867768595 | 8.26446280991735 | 0.826446280991736 | 0.826446280991736 | 52.0661157024793 | 23.9669421487603 |
| 35-74 | 42.8517254455821 | 22.4876753886993 | 7.20515737580584 | 0.455062571103527 | 8.60826697004171 | 18.3921122487675 |
| 75 and over | 22.3091247672253 | 31.1545623836127 | 13.0353817504655 | 2.45810055865922 | 2.25325884543762 | 28.7895716945996 |
The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for Q4 2023 was 5,229. This represents a rate of 4.0 per 1,000 population, matching the Q4 2022 rate of 3.6 per 1,000 (See Tables 1, 2 and Figure 1).
The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 4,812 of which 161 were same-sex marriages. This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 3.6 per 1,000 population, a decrease of 0.4 from Q4 2022 (See Tables 1 and 2).
Same-sex marriage legislation came into effect 16 November 2015.
The estimated population of the State (usual residence) in April 2023 was 5,281,612.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 May 2024) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 4 (Q4) 2023 Release. The CSO has also published the Vital Statistics Yearly Summary 2023 report today.
Commenting on the release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division, said: "This Vital Statistics publication provides insights into the number of births and deaths registered with the General Register Offices (GRO) for a particular quarter. To provide more context to users, from Q1 2023, in addition to providing the numbers of births and deaths registered for the relevant quarter, the CSO will also include details of when these births and deaths occurred (See Editor's Note below).
Bearing this in mind, of the 13,415 births which were registered in October, November, and December (Q4) 2023, 9,535 or 71.1% occurred in that quarter. Of the 8,186 deaths registered, for the same period, 5,041 or 61.6% occurred in Q4 2023. In total, 99.0% of births registered in Q4 2023, occurred either in Q4 2023 or Q3 2023, while for deaths, 83.3% registered in Q4 2023, occurred in either Q4 2023 or Q3 2023.
Deaths
Using the registration figures available to us, the number of deaths in Q4 2023 increased by 37 or 0.5% to 8,186 compared with the same period last year. There were 145 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for 1.8% of all deaths in the period.
Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory diseases were the biggest causes of death in Q4 2023 and these two categories together accounted for more than half (56.5%) of all deaths.
Births
Looking at births, we can see the number of births has increased by 546 (or 4.2%) when compared with the same quarter in the previous year, up from 12,869 in Q4 2022 to 13,415 in Q4 2023.
Births to mothers aged less than 20 fell from 173 in Q4 2022 to 161 in Q4 2023. The average age of mothers was 33.3 years in Q4 2023, up slightly from the 33.2 years reported in the same quarter in 2022, while 10 years ago, the average age was 32.2 years for the same period.
Just under two in five (39.4%) of births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared with the same quarter a year earlier when 41.2% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q4 2013, this proportion was more than one in three (35.8%) births.
The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q4 2023 was 5,229 up 10.8% on the same period in 2022 when it was 4,720."