Press Statement

Preasráiteas

16 March 2022

Go to release: Vital Statistics Third Quarter 2021

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 March 2022) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 3 2021 Release. 

Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician, said: “The number of deaths in Quarter 3 2021 increased by 1,054 or 14.8% compared to the same period last year. There were 179 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for one-in-fifty (2.2%) of all deaths in the period.

Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease accounted for almost three fifths (59.0%) of all deaths. 

The number of births has increased by 2,270 (or 15.7%) from the same quarter in the previous year, up from 14,477 in Q3 2020 to 16,747 in 2021. Births to teenage mothers also continue to fall, down from 237 in Q3 2020 to 188 in the current quarter. 

The average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q3 2021, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 32.0 years for the same period.

More than two in five (42.6%) of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 39.3% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q3 2011, this proportion was one in three (34.0%) of all births. 

The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q3 2021 was 8,582 an increase of 16.5% on the same period in 2020 when it was 7,366.”

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.

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