Vital Statistics Fourth Quarter 2024

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (23 May 2025) published Vital Statistics Quarter 4 (Q4) 2024. 

Commenting on the release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said: "The CSO’s Vital Statistics release provides a snapshot of the life events (births, deaths, and marriages) which were registered in October, November and December (Q4) 2024. Our Data chapter provides access to the open data available in our PxStat tables.

Registration vs Occurrence

Quarterly Vital Statistics releases provide figures on the number of births and deaths registered in the relevant quarter. Not all life events which are registered in a quarter occurred in that particular quarter. For instance, of the 13,417 births which were registered in Q4 2024, 99.1% occurred in either Q4 2024 or Q3 2024. For deaths (8,239), only 83.4% of the deaths registered in Q4 2024 occurred in either Q4 2024 or Q3 2024.

Crude Birth and Death Rates

There were 13,417 births registered in Q4 2024, which was only two more than the number of registrations in Q4 2023. This represented a birth rate of 10.0 per 1,000 population compared with 10 years earlier when the annual birth rate was 13.8 per 1,000 population in Q4 2014. 

There were 8,239 deaths registered in Ireland in Q4 2024, which equated to a death rate of 6.1 per 1,000 population compared with 5.8 per 1,000 population in Q4 2014.

Fertility and Age of Mothers

The Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) is derived from the age-specific fertility rates in the current year. It represents the projected number of children a woman would have if she experienced current age-specific fertility rates while progressing from ages 15-49 years. A value of 2.1 is generally considered to be the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.

In Q4 2024 the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5 which was below the replacement level. In Q4 2014 the TPFR stood at 1.8.

The average age of a mother giving birth was 33.3 years for Q4 2024, unchanged from the 33.3 years recorded in Q4 2023. This figure was 32.3 years in the same quarter 10 years ago in Q4 2014. 

Deaths

There were 8,239 registered deaths in Ireland in Q4 2024, of which 4,430 were males and 3,809 were females. There were 53 more deaths (+0.6%) registered in Q4 2024 when compared with the same period in 2023.

Nearly two out of every three deaths (5,242 out of 8,239) registered in Q4 2024 were to those aged 75 years and over. Those aged 0 to 34 years accounted for 227 of the 8,239 registered deaths in Q4 2024 (2.8%).

Infant Deaths

The death of a live-born infant under the age of one is categorised as an infant death. There were 44 infant deaths registered in Q4 2024 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under four weeks. There were 36 neonatal deaths registered in Q4 2024. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.7 in Q4 2024. In the same quarter 10 years earlier, in Q4 2014, the neonatal rate was 2.6.

Causes of Death

More than half of registered deaths in Q4 2024 were from either malignant neoplasms (cancer) at 2,430 or 29.5%, or diseases of the circulatory system (2,255 or 27.4%).  

Deaths due to accidents, suicide, and other external causes accounted for a further 551 or 6.7% of total death registrations. Of these 551 deaths, 135 or 24.5% were classed as intentional self-harm. It should be noted that all deaths due to external causes are reported to the Coroner's Office for further investigation, therefore the number of registrations for any given period will likely underrepresent the number of deaths which have occurred due to accidents, suicide, or other external causes of mortality. Furthermore, late registered deaths (registered in 2024 but occurred before 2023) are not included in these overall figures but will be included in a supplementary table as part of the 2024 yearly summary.    

Just over nine out of every ten deaths due to malignant neoplasms registered in Q4 2024 occurred to those aged 55 years and over, while for deaths relating to accidental poisoning just over three out of every four (77.3%) registered deaths occurred to those aged under 55 years. 

For those aged under 55 years, external causes of injury & poisoning (269), malignant neoplasms (215), and diseases of the circulatory system (121) accounted for 74.1% of the registered deaths for this age group.  

For those aged 55 years and over, malignant neoplasms (2,215), diseases of the circulatory system (2,134), and diseases of the respiratory system (894) were the three most common causes of death accounting for seven out of ten deaths.  

Natural Increase

Looking at births and deaths together allows the calculation of the natural increase (births minus deaths). It provides a snapshot of how a population is evolving. Note the natural increase does not take account of migration (inward or outward). Nationally, the natural increase for Q4 2024 stood at 5,178 (births less deaths). This is a slight decrease of 1.0% compared with Q4 2023 and a fall of 44.2% compared with Q4 2014.

Marriages

There were 4,742 marriages registered in Q4 2024 (down from 4,812 in Q4 2023). Of these, 158 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in Q4 2024 was 3.5 marriages per 1,000 population."

Editor's Note

Important Notice: Information on occurrence of births and deaths is only available for these life events which have been registered. Births are more likely to be registered in a timelier manner than deaths due to variations in reporting time requirements to the General Registers Office (GRO). 

As such, birth and death occurrence statistics in this publication are provisional and subject to further revision as births and deaths continue to be registered. Statistics in more recent quarters are more likely to be subject to revision as more life events are registered.

There is an Information Note on the CSO’s website to clarify the availability of death notifications arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explains 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.

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

From Q1 2023, the Vital Statistics quarterly publications provide an additional breakdown of registered births and deaths by occurrence by quarter. Prior to Q1 2023, all data was classified by quarter of registration. Please see Vital Statistics Q4 2024 Summary Results below.

Please note - all other statistics, bar those presented in the Vital Statistics Quarter 4 2024 Summary Results Table, are based off registration data and not occurrence data.