Over the last decade, the number of births registered fell from 68,930 in 2013 to 54,678 in 2023.
The fertility rate for 2023 stood at 1.5, a decrease of 0.5 from the 2013 fertility rate of 2.0.
The average age of first-time mothers increased by 3.4 years to 31.6 years in 2023 when compared with 20 years ago when it was 28.2 years in 2003.
The number of deaths registered in 2023 was 35,459, which was 18 fewer than the 2022 figure of 35,477.
COVID-19 accounted for 769 registered deaths in 2023, a decrease of 58.4% when compared with 2022.
For those aged under 55, the three most common causes of death in 2023 accounting for 70.1% of all deaths in this age group, were malignant neoplasms (907), external causes of injury and poisoning (548), and diseases of the circulatory system (450).
Of the 21,159 marriages registered last year, 646 were same-sex marriages.
| Vital Statistics Summary Table | ||||
| 2023 | 2022 | 2013 | 2003 | |
| Births | 54,678 | 57,540 | 68,930 | 61,517 |
| Deaths | 35,459 | 35,477 | 30,018 | 28,823 |
| Marriages1 | 21,159 | 23,173 | 21,018 | 20,302 |
| Natural increase | 19,219 | 22,063 | 39,450 | 32,694 |
| Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) | 1.5 | 1.7 | 2.0 | 2.0 |
| Average age of mother | 33.2 | 33.2 | 32.1 | 30.6 |
| Average age of mother at first birth | 31.6 | 31.5 | 30.2 | 28.2 |
| 1 Marriage figure includes civil partnerships for 2013 | ||||
| Births | Deaths | Natural Increase | |
| 2013 | 14.9 | 6.5 | 8.4 |
| 2014 | 14.5 | 6.3 | 8.3 |
| 2015 | 14.1 | 6.4 | 7.7 |
| 2016 | 13.5 | 6.4 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 12.9 | 6.3 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 12.5 | 6.4 | 6.1 |
| 2019 | 12.1 | 6.3 | 5.8 |
| 2020 | 11.1 | 6.3 | 4.8 |
| 2021 | 11.5 | 6.5 | 5 |
| 2022 | 11.1 | 6.8 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 10.4 | 6.7 | 3.6 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 May 2024) released the Vital Statistics Yearly Summary 2023 report. The CSO has also published Fourth Quarter 2023 results today.
Commenting on the Yearly Summary report, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said:
"The CSO’s 2023 Vital Statistics yearly summary provides a snapshot of the life events (births, deaths and marriages) which were registered in the year 2023. Our Data chapter has access to the open data available in our PxStat tables.
Registration vs Occurrence
Quarterly and yearly summary Vital Statistics reports provide figures on the number of births and deaths registered in a calendar year. Not all life events which are registered in a year occur in that particular year. For instance, of the 54,678 births which were registered in 2023, 91.1% occurred in 2023, with the remaining occurring in 2022. For deaths (35,459), only 81.9% of the deaths registered in 2023 occurred in 2023, with the remainder having a date of death in 2022.
Crude Birth and Death Rates
There were 54,678 births registered in 2023, a decrease of just under 5% when compared with 2022 registrations. This represented an annual birth rate of 10.4 per 1,000 of population compared with 10 years earlier when the annual birth rate was 14.9 per 1,000 population in 2013.
There were 35,459 deaths registered in Ireland in 2023, which equates to an annual death rate of 6.7 per 1,000 of population compared with 6.5 per 1,000 of population in 2013, and 7.2 in 2003.
Fertility
The total period fertility rate (TPFR) is derived from the age specific fertility rates in the current year. It represents the projected number of children a woman would have if she experienced current age specific fertility rates while progressing from age 15-49 years. A value of 2.1 is generally considered to be the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.
In 2023 the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5 which is below replacement level. In 2013 the TPFR stood at 2.0.
Age of Mothers
The average age of a mother at maternity was 33.2 years for 2023, it remains unchanged from 2022.
In 2013, this figure was 32.1 years and in 2003 it stood at 30.6 years.
Deaths
There were 35,459 registered deaths in Ireland in 2023, of which 18,361 were males and 17,098 were females.
There were 29,700 deaths registered for persons aged 65 and over in 2023 and this accounted for more than four-fifths (83.8%) of all deaths. Those aged 85 years and over were the age group with the highest number of registered deaths at 12,934 or 36.5% in the year.
Infant Deaths
The death of a live-born infant under the age of one is categorised as an infant death. There were 162 infant deaths registered in 2023 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.0 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under four weeks. There were 124 neonatal deaths registered in 2023. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.3 in 2023.
Most Common Causes of Death
More than half of registered deaths in 2023 were from either malignant neoplasms (10,308 or 29%) or diseases of the circulatory system (9,872 or 27.8%). The number of deaths where COVID-19 was identified as the Underlying Cause of Death (UCOD) in 2023 was 769 (or 2.2% of total deaths), down 58.4% in comparison with 2022.
Deaths due to accidents, suicide and other external causes accounted for a further 1,354 or 3.8% of death registrations. Of these 1,354 deaths, 302 or 22.3% were classed as intentional self-harm. It should be noted that all deaths due to external causes are reported to the Coroner's Office for further investigation, therefore the number of registrations for any given year will likely underrepresent the number of deaths which have occurred due to accidents, suicide or other external causes of mortality.
For those aged under 55, the three most common causes of death were malignant neoplasms (907), external causes of injury and poisoning (548), and diseases of the circulatory system (450). These three groupings accounted for 70.1% of deaths for this age group.
For those aged 55 years and over, diseases of the circulatory system (9,422), malignant neoplasms (9,401), and diseases of the respiratory system (4,105) were the three most common causes of death accounting for seven out of ten deaths.
Late registered deaths
Death due to intentional self-harm is classified as an unnatural death and therefore, must be referred to the Coroner for investigation. This investigation can take a protracted length of time to complete for various reasons, (such as getting medical reports, health and safety reports, engineer’s reports or the involvement of the Director of Public Prosecutions) and this delays the registration of such deaths. Moreover, in certain circumstances a death can occur of natural causes and subsequently be registered late (no next of kin, insufficient knowledge of the deceased etc.). For 2023, there were 1,144 late registered deaths (deaths registered in 2023 but occurred before 2022), which was up 25.6% from 911 in 2022, and an increase of 105.4% when compared to 2013 figures.
Marriages
There were 21,159 marriages registered in 2023 (down from 23,173 in 2022), of which 646 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in 2023 was 4.0 marriages per 1,000 of population".