Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 2 2007
Almost 1 in 6 births to cohabiting couples
Almost 1 in 6 births registered in the 2nd quarter of 2007 were to cohabiting couples. There were 17,127 births registered in total, and 2,815 (16.4%) of these were to unmarried parents living at the same address (cohabiting). There were an additional 2,613 (15.3%) births outside marriage where the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not registered. There were 11,699 (68.3%) births to married parents.
These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office’s Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2007 report. This is the first such report where details of cohabitation have been published.
The report also shows that the highest percentages of births to cohabiting couples were to mothers aged from 20 to 24. Almost 1 in 3 (33%) mothers in this age category were cohabiting. By contrast, only 1 in 10 (10%) mothers in the 35 to 39 age category were cohabiting. For teenage mothers, 18% of births were to cohabiting couples and 9% were to married couples. In the remaining 73% of births to teenage mothers, the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not registered. (See Table 5).
The highest percentage of births to cohabiting couples was 28% in Waterford City, and the lowest such percentage was 10% in County Longford. (See Table 6).
The average age of mothers for births registered in Quarter 2 2007, was 31.2 years, an increase of 0.1 years on the corresponding Quarter 2 2006 figure. The average age of mothers has risen steadily for the past 30 years. In 1978 the average age of first-time mothers was only 28.9 years, 2.2 years less than the most recent figure. In 1998 the average age of mothers was 30.1 years, 1.1 years less than the most recent figure.
The oldest mothers were in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with an average age of 33 years. The youngest mothers were in Limerick City, with an average age of 28.7 years. See Table 7 of report.
The report also shows that 6,902 deaths were registered in quarter 2 2007.
Almost 4 in every 5 of these deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (35%), cancer (28%), or diseases of the respiratory system (13%). There were 2,432 deaths due to circulatory diseases (which include heart disease and stroke), 1,930 deaths due to cancer, and 895 deaths due to respiratory diseases. See Table 10.
The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for Quarter 2 2007 was 10,225.
There were 5,536 marriages registered in Quarter 2 2007.
Vital Statistics Second Quarter 2007 is priced at €6.00 and is available on our website www.cso.ie (PDF 161KB).
Hard copies available from the:
Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork,
Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2,
or through any bookseller.
For more information contact Joseph Keating (LoCall 1890 313 414 ext 5121).
Internet address: http://www.cso.ie
Central Statistics Office 28 February 2007
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