More than 1,000 fewer babies born compared to last year
The 6,842 male births and 6,605 female births from April to June represented an annual birth rate of 10.2 per 1,000 population.
There were more than 1,000 fewer babies born in the second quarter of this year than in the same period of 2022, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The 6,842 male births and 6,605 female births from April to June represented an annual birth rate of 10.2 per 1,000 population.
But the number of births dropped 1,002 compared with the same period in 2022, leading to a decrease of 1.1 in the birth rate.
The drop comes off the back of a previous CSO "vital statistics" report for 2022, which noted the number of births registered in Ireland per year has fallen by a fifth in the last decade.
There were 13,447 births and 8,749 deaths registered in Ireland in Quarter 2 2023https://t.co/PL7B5mAoTg#CSOIreland #Ireland #VitalStatistics #VitalStats #Births #Deaths #Marriages pic.twitter.com/iQ6PugE7Ud
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) November 30, 2023
The birth rate of 11.3 for 2022 contrasted with 15.7 10 years previously.
The report has also noted that while there has been a marked decrease in suicides compared to a year ago, there has also been a slight increase in baby deaths.
There were 287 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes and of these, accidents accounted for 205, while suicides accounted for 63.
CSO Vital Statistics Division statistician Seán O’Connor said: "This figure of 63 reflects a decrease of 49% from the same quarter of 2022."
He added: "All unnatural deaths, which include deaths from intentional self-harm, must be referred to the Coroner's Office for further investigation [and] are likely to be under-represented.
"This can then result in such deaths being registered more than three months after the date of occurrence and therefore have not yet been reported to the CSO."
The report also notes there were 44 infant deaths registered in the second quarter of this year, giving an infant mortality rate of 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.
This was a decrease of 0.2 on the rate recorded in Q2 last year.
However, there were 38 neonatal deaths — deaths of infants aged under four weeks — registered in the second quarter of 2023, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 2.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.
This is an increase of 0.5 on the rate recorded in the second quarter of 2022.
The average age of all mothers has, according to the CSO's latest vital statistics report, risen slightly to 33.3 years of age. The counties where the average age of mothers was highest being Sligo and Meath.
As registered births have dropped, so too has the number of births registered outside marriage.
Just over two in five, or 40.9%, of births were outside marriage or civil partnership in the second quarter of this year (Q2).
This figure is lower than the 44.2% percentage of births in Q2 last year.
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City, with 1,596 or 12%, of the national population, followed by Cork County, with 1,119 or 8.3%, of registered births.
Leitrim had the lowest number, with 74, or 0.6%, of registered births in Q2.
Of the 13,447 births, 9,952 babies, or 74%, of the national total were born to mothers of Irish nationality compared to 10,901, or 75%, in Q2 last year.
On marriages as a whole, the number registered during the quarter was 5,560, of which 175 were same-sex marriages.
This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 4.2 per 1,000 population — a decrease of 0.9 from Q2 last year.
There were 8,749 deaths registered in quarter 2 2023, 6% less than the corresponding quarter of 2022 when 9,326 deaths were registered.
