Births, Deaths and Marriages in Quarter 1 2012

The CSO today released the Vital Statistics First Quarter 2012 report.

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

Births

• There were 19,313 births registered in the first quarter of 2012, a decrease of 3.2% in the number of births registered in the corresponding quarter of 2011.

• Births in the first quarter of 2012 represented an annual birth rate of 16.9 per 1,000 population. The rate for the corresponding quarter of 2011 was 17.5 per 1,000 population and 15.6 per 1,000 population in quarter 1 2003. In quarter 1 2012, Fingal recorded the highest birth rate of 21.3 per 1,000 population, while Monaghan recorded the lowest birth rate of 12.1 per 1,000 population.

• Of the 19,313 births, there were 6,929 births registered as outside marriage. This accounted for 36% of all births. Of these, 3,966 births were to unmarried parents with the same address, 20.5% of all births. The highest percentage of births outside marriage occurred in Limerick City at 56%, while the lowest percentage occurred in Leitrim at 21%.

• A total of 7,693 births (40%) were to first time mothers in quarter 1 of 2012. Second time mothers had 6,610 births (34.4%). The average age of mothers for births registered in this period was 31.8 years, while the average age of mothers having their first child was 29.9 years.

Deaths

• There were 7,979 deaths registered in quarter 1 2012, a decrease of 1.4% in the number of deaths registered in the first quarter of 2011. The quarter 1 2012 total represents a death rate of 7.0 per 1,000 population, a slight decrease from the rate of 7.1 per 1,000 population in the corresponding quarter in 2011. The death rate in quarter 1 2003 was 7.9 per 1,000 population.

• Almost one third (32%) of all deaths in the quarter were attributed to circulatory disease (2,541), while 29% were attributed to malignant neoplasms (2,343), 14% to respiratory diseases (1,123) and 5% to external causes (379).

• For those aged 65 and over, the annual death rate was 48.5 per 1,000 population (6,445 deaths). This compares with a rate of 50.1 per 1,000 population for the corresponding quarter of 2011. The decrease in this rate since 2003 was 15.5% (57.4 per 1,000 population).

• There were 61 infant deaths registered in quarter 1 2012 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. The corresponding rate in quarter 1 2011 was 3.6 per 1,000 live births and was 4.4 per 1,000 live births in quarter 1 2003. The number of neonatal deaths (deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks) in quarter 1 2012 was 45, 2.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Natural Increase

• The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 1 2012 was 11,334. This represents a rate of 9.9 per 1,000 population, 0.5 below quarter 1 2011 and 2.3 above quarter 1 2001.

Marriages

• There were 2,827 marriages registered in quarter 1 2012, 225 less than the corresponding quarter of 2011 and an increase of 256 from the number of marriages registered in quarter 1 2003.

Vital Statistics First Quarter 2012 is available on our website Vital Statistics First Quarter 2012 (PDF 169KB) For more information contact Sandra Tobin on 021 453 5307 or Maria Crowley on 021 453 5016.

Central Statistics Office                                                                       4 October 2012

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