Press Statement

Preasráiteas

27 August 2021

Go to release: Vital Statistics First Quarter 2021

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (27 August 2021) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2021 Release. 

Commenting on the release, Carol Anne Hennessy, Statistician, said: “The number of deaths in Quarter 1 2021 increased by 890 or 10.3% compared to the same period last year. There were 1,846 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for almost one-fifth (19.3%) of all deaths in the period.

Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease accounted for almost half (49.8%) of all deaths. 

The number of births has fallen by 476 (or 3.3%) from the same quarter in the previous year, down from 14,371 in Q1 2020 to 13,895 in 2021. Births to teenage mothers also continue to fall, down from 221 in Q1 2020 to 179 in the current quarter. 

The average age of mothers was 33.1 in Q1 2021, the same average age as that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 31.7 years for the same period.

More than a third (40.1%) of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, similar to the same quarter a year earlier when 38.3% of births were to mothers outside of marriage.

The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q1 2021 was 4,331, a decrease of 24.0% on the same period in 2020 when it was 5,697.”

The CSO has provided information to clarify the availability of death notifications arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the timing of the release of these statistics as death notifications in Ireland can be registered up to three months after the date of death. Please refer to the previously published ‘Information Note on the implications of COVID-19 on the processing of Death Certificates' for further details.

A new Information Note is available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.

-- ENDS --