Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 3 2007

Almost 3 in 5 mothers under 30 unmarried

Almost 3 in 5 (58%) births to women under 30 were outside marriage in the 3rd quarter of 2007. There were 4,200 births outside marriage to women under 30, compared to 3,103 births to married women under 30. Almost half of the 4,200 births outside marriage were to cohabiting couples. There were 1,991 births to mothers under 30 where the parents were cohabiting, and 2,209 where the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not registered.

By contrast, less than 1 in 6 (16%) mothers over 30 were unmarried. There were 9,430 births to married women over 30 in the 3rd quarter of 2007, and only 1,816 births outside marriage to women over 30. Of the 1,816 births outside marriage 1,168 were to cohabiting couples. See Table 5 of report.

These figures are contained in the Central Statistics Office’s Vital Statistics Third Quarter 2007 report.

Overall, over 1 in 6 births registered in the 3rd quarter of 2007 were to cohabiting couples. There were 18,554 births registered in total, and 3,161 (17%) of these were to unmarried parents living at the same address. There were an additional 2,858 (15%) births outside marriage where the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not
registered. There were 12,535 (68%) births to married parents.

The average age of mothers for births registered in Quarter 3 2007, was 31.1 years, an increase of 0.1 years on the corresponding Quarter 3 2006 figure. The average age of mothers has risen steadily for the past 30 years. In 1978 the average age of mothers was only 28.8 years, 2.3 years less than the most recent figure. In 1998 the average age of
mothers was 30.1 years, 1 year less than the most recent figure.

The oldest mothers were in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with an average age of 33.3 years. The youngest mothers were in Limerick City and Waterford City, with an average age of 29.2 years. See Table 7 of report.

The report also shows that 6,455 deaths were registered in quarter 3 2007.

Just over 3 in every 4 of these deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (35%), cancer (30%), or diseases of the respiratory system (11%). There were 2,259 deaths due to circulatory diseases (which include heart disease and stroke), 1,942 deaths due to cancer, and 729 deaths due to respiratory diseases. See Table 10.

The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for Quarter 3 2007 was 12,099.

There were 8,733 marriages registered in Quarter 3 2007.

Vital Statistics Third Quarter 2007 is priced at €6.00 and is available on our website www.cso.ie (PDF 157KB) (PDF 157KB) .

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                                                                      14 May 2008

- ENDS -