Jack and Grace were the most popular babies' names in 2020. Jack has held the top spot since 2007 with the exception of 2016 when James was the most popular name. Jack, James, Daniel and Conor have been in the top five boys' names since 2007. Three of these names - Jack, James and Conor have been in the top five since 1998.  

This is the first time that Grace has taken the number one spot, climbing from second place in 2018 and 2019. Emily had been the most popular name for baby girls since 2011 prior to this year. Fiadh was a new entrant to the top five names in 2019 and has risen from third place to second place in 2020. Emily, formerly the top name for 9 consecutive years has fallen to third place. Hannah dropped out of the top five this year after entering this most favoured group for the first time in 2019.

The top three surnames for babies were Murphy at 602 (1.1%), Kelly at 523 (0.9%) and O’Brien at 467 (0.8%). Our historic records of forenames date back to 1964.

The number of births continue to decline. In 2020 there were 55,959 births. This compares to 65,536 in 2015, a decline of 9,577 births (-14.6%) in six years. Significantly, the number of births to teenagers continues to decrease. In 2020, there were 830 (1.5%) births to mothers under 20 years. Five years previously, births to mothers under 20 years of age accounted for 1,199 (1.8%) of all births. The reverse is the case for mothers aged 40 and over.  In 2020, there were 4,701 (8.4%) births to mothers aged over 40 years. Five years previously, this age-group accounted for 4,175 (6.4%) births. The majority of births in 2020, 41,458 (74.1%) were to first or second time mothers. 

Interactive tables:  Visit Table VSA51 on PxStat

Link to publication: Vital Statistics Yearly Summary

There were 9,523 marriages in the State in 2020. This is 10,790 (53.1%) fewer than in 2019 when there were 20,313 marriages registered, reflecting the impact of COVID-19 restrictions. Of these there were 9,209 opposite-sex marriages and 314 same-sex marriages.

The average age of marriage continues to rise for opposite-sex couples. The average age of grooms was 37.8 years, 1.0 years more than the average age of grooms in 2019. In the past 50 years, the average age of grooms decreased from 27.7 years in 1970 to 26.5 years, 10 years later, in 1980 and increased to a high of 37.8 years in 2020. A similar trend is evident for brides with the average age decreasing from 25.1 in 1970 to 24.4 in 1980 and increasing to a high of 35.7 in 2020. 

In 2020, opposite-sex marriages, 2.6% of grooms were under the age of 25 and 50.2% of grooms were aged 35 and over on their wedding day. For brides, 4.1% were under the age of 25 and 41.0% were aged 35 and over on their wedding day. One in four opposite-sex marriages were between brides and grooms of the same socio-economic group.

In 2020, religious ceremonies accounted for the highest proportion of opposite-sex marriages (51.4%) compared to 60.2% in 2019. Civil marriage ceremonies were the most popular choice for non-religious marriage ceremonies accounting for 3,779 (41.0%) of all opposite-sex marriages; the remaining 701 (7.6%) had Humanist ceremonies. The most popular form of ceremony for same-sex marriage celebrations in 2020 was civil marriage ceremonies, which accounted for 228 marriages (72.6%) followed by The Humanist Association of Ireland with 38 or 12.1% of ceremonies.

December was the most popular month for opposite-sex marriages in 2020 in comparison to August for 2019. In 2020, 17.3% (or 1,591) of marriages occurred in December. The most popular month for same-sex marriages in 2020 was February with 41 (13.1%) marriages.   

In 2020 Friday was the most popular day for same-sex marriages with over one-third (108) or 34.4% occurring on that day while Friday and Saturday were the most popular days of the week for opposite-sex couples to get married with 5,545 or 60.2% opting for these days.

There were 31,765 deaths in the State in 2020, of these 16,450 were male while 15,315 were female. The 2020 total is 2.0% higher than in 2019 when 31,134 deaths were registered. Over half of all deaths, 57.0% (18,100) were due to either malignant neoplasms (cancer) or diseases of the circulatory system. This continues to be part on an on-going pattern. From 2015 to 2016 at least 60% of all deaths have been due to cancer and diseases of the circulatory system. This was slightly less than in 2017 (59.3%), 2018 (58.9%) and 2019 (59.7%). There were more male than female deaths from malignant neoplasms, diseases of the circulatory system and external causes (which include accidents and suicides) in 2020. However, there were more female deaths from infectious and parasitic diseases, diseases of the digestive and respiratory systems.

COVID-19 Virus Identified and Virus Unidentified:

There were 1,672 registered deaths where COVID-19 was assigned as the underlying cause of death in 2020.  There were a further 167 mortality records where there was a mention of COVID-19 in the narrative of the death certificate and where the underlying cause of death was not COVID-19.  A new information note is available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.

Interactive tables: Visit Table VSD09 on PxStat

Link to publication: Vital Statistics Yearly Summary

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