Image: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.comIreland had 2,407,437 females according to Census 2016. This was an increase of 91,884 or 4.0% on the previous census in 2011. In April 2016 the overall sex ratio of 97.8 males for every 100 females meant 53,009 more females than males in the State.
There were 30,617 or 4.4% more women than men in the Dublin region, the largest difference being in Dublin City which had just over 10,000 more women than men. Cork also had significantly more women than men with 5,518 or 2%. Galway City had 3,068 or 7.5% more women than men, but in Galway County this trend was reversed, with 336 more men than women.
The county with the highest number of men to women was Laois where there were 925 more men than women.
According to Census 2016, there were 1,236,634 single ladies (of all ages!) out there, an increase of 3.0% on 2011. There were also 148,617 widowed ladies which was more than the number of ladies who were separated (66,563) and divorced (60,563) combined. The number of divorcees increased 18.0% since the previous census.
Women were more likely to be married than single by the age of 33, while for men this happened at age 35. The peak age for persons separated or divorced was 53 years in 2016 compared with 48 years in 2011. Women were more likely to be widowed than married by the age of 79 compared with age 76 in 2011.
There were 893,337 married women in Ireland in 2016, of which 27,146 or 3% were married for the second time. However this varies by age group as there were more remarried women than men between the ages of 25 and 44 years. Over the age of 45, the number of remarried men is substantially higher at 29,449 compared to 20,797 women.
There were 450 female same-sex marriages in 2016, and for the first time, a category for registered same-sex civil partnership was included on the census form in Census 2016. There were 1,700 females who indicated on their census forms that they were in a registered same-sex civil partnership.
There were 21,570 marriages in Ireland in 2016, 2.1% less than in 2015.
Looking at marriage data, we can see that in 2016 there were 19 brides aged 75 years or older. Of these, 9 married grooms who were at least 10 years younger.
After Census 2016, we saw there were 372 female centenarians; that is, ladies at 100 years or older, an increase of 11.0% on 2011.
Image: shurkin_son/Shutterstock.comIn general, women were better educated than men in April 2016. In all 43.2 per cent of females aged 15 and over had a third level qualification, compared with 40.7 per cent of males. Among those aged 25 to 39, women tended to stay in education longer than men.
We can see the numbers of women who have attained different levels of education from the 2016 Census.
The number of female carers increased by 3.5% to 118,151 between 2011 and 2016 and made up 60.5% of all carers.
At the same time, the number of female carers under the age of 20 fell by 5.3% to 4,141.
There were 331,551 females of all ages with a disability recorded in Census 2016, an increase of 8.5% over Census 2011.
In 1926 female life expectancy was 57.9 years. Between then and 2011 there was an increase of 24.9 years or 43.0%. Life expectancy (based on 2010-2012 data) for women is 82.8 years compared to 78.4 years for men.
There were 63,897 births in 2016 of which 31,078 were female.
The total number of female deaths was 14,891 that same year. The highest numbers of deaths among females were caused by Diseases of the Circulatory System which totalled 4,438 and Neoplasms which totalled 4,397. The highest numbers of deaths were among females in the 85 years and older age group and these totalled 4,482.
Watch out for our Mother's Day Infographic which will be published at 11.00am tomorrow
