Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 2 2010

The CSO today released the Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2010 report.

Some of the key points highlighted in the report are as follows:

Births

• There were 18,844 births registered in the second quarter of 2010, the same number of births registered in the corresponding quarter of 2009.

• Births in the second quarter of 2010 represented an annual birth rate of 16.9 per 1,000 population. The rate for the corresponding quarter of 2009 was also 16.9 per 1,000 population and 14.9 per 1,000 population in quarter 2 of 2001. In quarter 2 of 2010, Fingal recorded the highest birth rate of 21.8 per 1,000 population, while Limerick City recorded the lowest birth rate of 11.4 per 1,000 population.

• Of the 18,844 births, there were 6,205 births registered as outside marriage. This accounted for 32.9% of all births.  Of these, 3,381 births were to unmarried parents with the same address, 17.9% of all births. The highest percentage of births outside marriage occurred in Limerick City at 50%, while the lowest percentage occurred in Galway County at 21%.

• A total of 7,749 births (41.3%) were to first time mothers in quarter 2 of 2010. This quarter traditionally has the lowest percentage of first time births registered. The average age of first time mothers at maternity was 29.5 years. The average age of all mothers at maternity was 2 years older at 31.5 years.

Deaths

• There were 6,929 deaths registered in quarter 2 of 2010, a decrease of 1.3% in the number of deaths registered in the second quarter of 2009. The quarter 2 2010 total represents a death rate of 6.2 per 1,000 population, a slight decrease from the rate of 6.3 per 1,000 population in the corresponding quarter in 2009. The death rate in quarter 2 of 2001 was 7.5 per 1,000 population.

• For those aged 65 and over, the annual death rate was 42.0 per 1,000 population (5,344 deaths). This compares with a rate of 43.3 per 1,000 population for the corresponding quarter of 2009, a decline of 3.0%. The decrease in this rate since 2001 (54.1 per 1,000 population) was 22.4%.

• There were 84 infant deaths registered in quarter 2 of 2010 giving an infant mortality rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births. The corresponding rate in quarter 2 of 2009 was 2.8 per 1,000 live births and was 5.2 per 1,000 live births in quarter 2 of 2001. The number of neonatal deaths (deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks) in quarter 2 of 2010 was 54, 2.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.

• Over one third (33.4%) of all deaths in the quarter were attributed to circulatory disease (2,315), while 29.7% were attributed to malignant neoplasms (2,059), 11.6% to respiratory diseases (807) and 5.8% to external causes (401).

Natural Increase

• The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 2 of 2010 was 11,915. This represents a rate of 10.7 per 1,000 population, 0.1 above the quarter 2 of 2009 rate and 3.4 above quarter 2 of 2001 rate.

Marriages

• There were 5,003 marriages registered in quarter 2 of 2010, a decrease of 6.3% on the number of marriages registered in quarter 2 of 2009 and an increase of 10.4% on the number of marriages registered in quarter 2 of 2001.

Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2010 is available on our website www.cso.ie (PDF 165KB) ‌

Hard copies available from the:

Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork

For more information contact Sandra Tobin on 021 453 5307 or Maria Crowley on 021 453 5016.

Internet address: http://www.cso.ie

Central Statistics Office                                                                    31 January 2011

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