Important Notice: Due to the HSE cyber-attack in May 2021, General Register Offices (GRO) were closed meaning the registration of Births/Deaths/Marriages were not possible at that time. As a result, the total Births/Deaths/Marriages registered in Q2 and Q3 2021 is not comparable with previous and/or subsequent quarters, and therefore, care should be taken when comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2021 figures. See Statistician's Comment below for more.
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. See ‘Information Note on the implications of COVID-19 on the processing of Death Certificates' for further details.
A new Information Note is also available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.
The number of births decreased by 2,656 or 15.9% in Quarter 3 (Q3) 2022 while there were 302 more deaths (3.7%) when compared with the same period in 2021. Care should be taken when interpreting these figures. See Statistician's Comment below for more detail.
There were 332 deaths due to COVID-19 in Q3 2022, accounting for 3.9% of deaths in the quarter of which 177 were male and 155 were female.
Cancer and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Ireland in Q3 2022 accounting for 4,865 (or 57.5%) of deaths compared with 4,814 (or 59.0%) in Q3 2021.
Average age of all mothers in Q3 2022 was 33.2 years, which is the same figure recorded in Q3 2021, while 10 years ago the average age was 32.0 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.8%) births were outside marriage/civil partnership in Q3 2022.
The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) decreased by 34.5% in Q3 2022 compared with the same period in 2021.
| Vital Statistics | Quarter 3 2022 | Quarter 3 2021 |
| Births | 14,091 | 16,747 |
| Deaths | 8,467 | 8,165 |
| Marriages | 8,046 | 7,022 |
| Natural increase | 5,624 | 8,582 |
There were 7,188 male births and 6,903 female births in quarter 3 2022.The 14,091 births represent an annual birth rate of 11.1 per thousand population. This is a decrease of 2.3 in the rate that was recorded in quarter 3 2021. See tables 3, 4 and 5.
The average age of first time mothers was 31.5, down 0.3 years from that recorded for the same period in the previous year. The average age of all mothers at maternity for births registered in quarter 3 2022 was 33.2 years, which is unchanged from quarter 3 2021. The average age of first time mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 29.7, while the average age of all mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 31.0 years.
In the same quarter in 2021, the average age of mothers having their first baby outside marriage/civil partnership was 30.1 years while it was 31.1 years for all mothers for births registered outside of marriage/civil partnership. See tables 6, 7, 8, 9 and Map 1.
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City with 1,557 (11% of total live births) followed by Cork County with 1,276 (9.1%) registered births. Leitrim had the lowest number with 101 (0.7%) registered births in quarter 3 2022. The highest number of births registered in quarter 3 2021 was Dublin City which accounted for 1,787 or 11% of births followed by Cork County with 1,579 (9.4%). Leitrim had the lowest number, 110 births (0.7%), registered in quarter 3 2021. See tables 10, 11 and Map 2.
In quarter 3 2022, there were 8,066 (57%) births registered as within marriage/civil partnership.
There were 6,025 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership, accounting for 43% of all births in quarter 3 2022. The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Dublin City at 12% and the lowest was in Leitrim with 0.4%. In the same quarter in 2021, there were 7,141 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership accounting for 43% of all births. See tables 12, 13 and Map 3.
From January 2018 onwards, where births take place within the State and the mother is residing outside the State, the area of residence of the mother is recorded as outside the State. Prior to quarter 1, 2018, cases where the mother was residing outside the State, the mother's area of residence was assigned to the location where the birth took place within the State.
There were 9 babies born to mothers who were resident outside the Republic of Ireland in quarter 3 2022. This accounts for 0.06% of total live births registered in the quarter. See tables 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9.
A total of 5,727 births (41%) were to first time mothers in quarter 3 2022 while 4,792 (34%) were to second time mothers. These accounted for a total of 75% of births of stated parity in quarter 3 2022. See table 14 and figure 2.
Of the 14,091 births in quarter 3 2022, there were 10,666 babies (76%) born to mothers of Irish nationality compared to 12,923 (77%) in quarter 3 2021. See table 15.
There were 8,467 deaths registered in quarter 3 2022, of these 4,395 were male and 4,072 were female. The quarter 3 2022 total is 3.7% more than the corresponding quarter of 2021 when 8,165 deaths were registered. See table 16.
Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 2,343 deaths, or an annual rate of 1.8 per 1,000 population. Of these, 1,065 were due to ischaemic heart disease and 373 to cerebrovascular disease. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20 and figure 4.
There were 2,522 deaths from malignant neoplasms. This is equivalent to an annual rate of 2.0 per 1,000 population. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Deaths from chronic lower respiratory disease numbered 400, pneumonia accounted for 197 deaths and 265 deaths resulted from all other respiratory diseases. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
| For long labels below use to display on multiple lines | Principal causes of death Q3 2022 (%) |
|---|---|
| Circulatory | 10.1807015471832 |
| External | 27.6721388921696 |
| COVID-19 | 4.05102161332231 |
| Respiratory | 3.92110546828865 |
| Malignant Cancer | 29.7862288886264 |
| Remainder | 24.3888035904098 |
There were 343 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes. Accidents accounted for 73% (251) of these deaths while suicides accounted for 25% (84). This figure of 84 reflects a decrease of 46% from the same quarter of 2021. Of these suicide deaths, 80% (67) were male. See tables 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22.
Care should be taken comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2021 figures, as due to the HSE cyber attack in May 2021, GRO offices were closed and births/deaths/marriage registrations were not possible at that time.
All unnatural deaths, which includes deaths from intentional self-harm, must be referred to the Coroner's Office. However, the Coroner's Court did not hold public hearings at various stages over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a consequence of the restrictions imposed. This would impact on the number of deaths registered and subsequently assigned an Underlying Cause of Death of intentional self-harm. Users should bear this in mind when comparing percentage increases/decreases from 2021-2022 quarterly results.
Deaths assigned an Underlying Cause of Death of External causes of injury and poisoning (including deaths from road traffic accidents and deaths from intentional self-harm), are likely to be underrepresented as such deaths are reported to the Coroner’s Office for further investigation. This can then result in such deaths being registered late (more than three months after the date of occurrence) and therefore have not yet been reported to the CSO. In addition, public hearings in the Coroner's Court have also been limited as a consequence of the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and this may also have resulted in deaths being registered late.
There were 56 infant deaths registered in quarter 3 2022 giving an infant mortality rate of 4.0 deaths per 1,000 live births, an increase of 0.9 on that recorded in quarter 3 of 2021. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks. There were 44 neonatal deaths registered in quarter 3 2022, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, which is an increase of 0.7 from quarter 3 2021. See tables 1, 2, 23 and figure 3.
| Under 1 yr rates | infant | neonatal |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2019 | 3 | 2.3 |
| Q4 2019 | 3.1 | 2.4 |
| Q1 2020 | 2.9 | 2.2 |
| Q2 2020 | 2.7 | 1.8 |
| Q3 2020 | 2.5 | 1.7 |
| Q4 2020 | 2.9 | 2.2 |
| Q1 2021 | 2.7 | 2.2 |
| Q2 2021 | 2.5 | 2 |
| Q3 2021 | 3.1 | 2.4 |
| Q4 2021 | 3.8 | 2.8 |
| Q1 2022 | 2.7 | 2.1 |
| Q2 2022 | 3.5 | 2.3 |
| Q3 2022 | 4 | 3.1 |
In Quarter 3 2022, there were 449 deaths due to dementia of which 271 (or 60%) were female. There were 121 deaths due to Alzheimer's of which 83 (or 69%) were female. See tables 24 and 25.
There were 332 deaths due to COVID-19 recorded in quarter 3 2022, 177 of which were male and 155 which were female. Of these, 247 (74%) were aged 75 and over.
In all 332 of these COVID-19 deaths the virus was identified while there were no deaths where the virus was not identified. See tables 26, 27 and WHO ICD-10 classification of COVID-19 and WHO emergency use ICD codes for COVID-19 disease outbreak
It is important to note that there will be a number of deaths where COVID-19 will not be assigned as the Underlying Cause of Death (UCOD) and therefore, the COVID-19 deaths in this analysis, will vary from those put into the public domain by the Department of Health. This is because the figures published in the Vital Statistics quarterly releases are based on the narrative of cause of death that is reported, in electronic format, on the death certificate once the death is registered with the General Registration Office (GRO) and subsequently forwarded to the CSO for processing. All deaths that are registered are assigned an Underlying Cause of Death in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). This UCOD is assigned using the WHO selection rules and is dependent on the hierarchy of diseases or conditions and their placement on the medical death certificate. There are also instances where COVID-19 is mentioned in the narrative of the death certificate but where the UCOD is not COVID-19.
The mean average age of death was 80.6 years while the median age was 83.9 years for all deaths due to COVID-19 in quarter 3 2022.
The leading cause of death in quarter 3 2022 varied widely by age-group. For those aged from 15 to 34 years, external causes of death including accidents, suicide and other ranked first (63 deaths). Among individuals aged 35-74, malignant neoplasms (cancer) was the leading cause (1,196), while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the circulatory system (1,670 deaths). See table 20.
There were 6,949 deaths of persons aged 65 and over registered in quarter 3 2022. This represents an annual death rate of 36.1 per 1,000 population aged 65 and over and represents an increase of 0.6 when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2021. See tables 1, 2 and figure 5.
The average (mean) time-lag between the date of death and the registration of death was 60 days while the median (mid-point in data) was 22 days for quarter 3 2022.
| X-axis label | Cancer | Disease of the circulatory system | Disease of the respiratory system | COVID-19 | Accident, suicide, homicide and undetermined | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 6.84931506849315 | 1.36986301369863 | 1.36986301369863 | 0 | 1.36986301369863 | 89.041095890411 |
| 15-34 | 19.8473282442748 | 5.34351145038168 | 3.81679389312977 | 3.05343511450382 | 48.0916030534351 | 19.8473282442748 |
| 35-74 | 42.0386643233743 | 23.3743409490334 | 6.95957820738137 | 2.84710017574692 | 5.9402460456942 | 18.8400702987698 |
| 75 and over | 23.9018087855297 | 30.8231819859727 | 12.1447028423773 | 4.55887781469177 | 2.03026947212994 | 26.5411590992986 |
The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for quarter 3 2022 was 5,624. This represents a rate of 4.4 per 1,000 population, 2.4 less than quarter 3 2021. See tables 1, 2 and figure 1.
The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 8,046 of which 239 were same-sex marriages. This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 6.3 per 1,000 population, an increase of 0.7 from quarter 3 2021. See tables 1 and 2.
Same-sex marriage legislation came into effect on the 16th November 2015.
The estimated population (usual residence) in April 2022 was 5,100,229.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 March 2023) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 3 2022 Release.
Commenting on the release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division, said: "Care should be taken comparing Q3 2022 and Q3 2021 figures, due to the HSE cyber-attack in May 2021. As a result of the cyber-attack, General Register Offices (GRO) around the country were closed and the registration of births/deaths/marriages were not possible for a number of weeks – which is likely to have impacted the recording in both Q2 and Q3. This change in circumstances for the registration processes should be considered when looking at year-on-year changes in Q3 2022.
Deaths
Bearing this in mind and using the registration figures available to us, the number of deaths in Quarter 3 2022 increased by 302 or 3.7% compared with the same period last year. There were 332 deaths due to COVID-19 in this period accounting for one in twenty five (3.9%) of all deaths in the period.
Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Q3 2022 and accounted for more than half (57.5%) of all deaths.
Births
Looking at births, we can see the number of births has decreased by 2,656 (or 15.9%) when compared with the same quarter in the previous year, down from 16,747 in Q3 2021 to 14,091 in Q3 2022.
Births to mother's aged less than twenty increased from 188 in Q3 2021 to 209 in Q3 2022. The average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q3 2022, which is similar with that reported in the same quarter in 2021, while 10 years ago the average age was 32.0 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.8%) births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, compared with the same quarter a year earlier when 42.6% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q3 2012, this proportion was more than one in three (34.8%) births.
The natural increase (births minus deaths) in Q3 2022 was 5,624, a decrease of 34.5% on the same period in 2021 when it was 8,582."