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Vital Statistics Annual Report 2017

Births 2017

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Live Births 2017

There were 61,824 live births in 2017 comprising of 31,779 males and 30,045 females.  The corresponding total for 2016 was 63,841.  The birth rate in 2017 was 12.9 per 1,000 population, 0.6 lower than the corresponding birth rate in 2016, which was 13.5 per 1,000 of the population.  See tables 2.1a, 2.3 and 2.21.


Average age of mothers

The average age of mothers at maternity in Ireland in 2017 was 32.8 years.   This is the highest average age of mothers at maternity, since the age of mother at birth was first recorded in 1955.  Thirty years earlier, in 1987, the average age was 29.4 years.   In 1967, 50 years earlier, the average age at maternity was 30.4 years.  Ireland had the highest average age at maternity within the EU 28 countries in 2017, followed by Spain, where the average age of mothers at birth was 32.1 years.  Bulgaria had the lowest average age of mothers at birth at 27.6 years.  See tables 2.22, 2.27 and figure 2.1.

For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Average Age of mothers
196730.4
197728.8
198729.4
199730.1
200731.1
201732.8

Age at maternity

The percentage of births to teenagers is 1.7% (1,038) of all births in 2017, no change from 2016 when it was also 1.7% (1,101).  This is the lowest percentage of births to mothers under 20 since 1960, when it was 1.6% of all births.  From 1961 onwards the percentage of births to mothers in this age group continued to increase until it reached a peak in 1999 with 6.2% (3,314) of all births to mothers under 20.  This percentage has decreased each year since.  Within the EU 28, Denmark and the Netherlands had the lowest percentage of teenage births in 2017 each accounting for 0.8% of total births in this age group.  Romania had the highest percentage of births to mothers aged under 20 years with 9.7% while Ireland ranked 9th with 1.7% of births to mothers under 20 years.  See tables 2.8 and 2.28.


At the other end of the scale, the number of births to mothers aged 40 and over are increasing.  In 2017 there were 6.9% (or 4,293) of births to mothers aged 40 and over.  Similar to 2016, this was the highest percentage of births recorded to this age group since 1969 when it was 6.6% of all births.  In 1981, mothers under 30 years of age accounted for 59.1% of births.  However, the proportion of births to this age group declined fairly steadily to reach 27.4% in 2017.  See table 2.26 and fig 2.2

 

For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Age-Group 2017 (%)
under 201.7
20-248.3
25-2917.4
30-3435
35-3930.6
40 and over6.9

Births within and outside marriage/civil partnership

In 2017, 38,588 (or 62.4%) births occurred within marriage/civil partnership and 23,236 (37.6%) births occurred outside marriage/civil partnership.  The percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership is 1 percentage point higher than in 2016.  There were 3 births within civil partnerships in 2017.  The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership occurred in Limerick City accounting for 57.4% of births while the area with the lowest percentage was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at 25.2%.  See table 2.21.


The lowest number of births outside marriage/civil partnership was recorded in 1959 (1.6%).  Since then there has been a steady increase in the percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership, notably since 1980.


Multiple births

The number of maternities in 2017 which resulted in live births was 60,678 including 1,134 sets of twins, 17 sets of triplets with no sets of quadruplets.  This is equivalent to a “twinning rate” of 18.7 (i.e. the number of sets of live twins per 1,000 maternities which resulted in live births).  Over the past 24 years, the twinning rate has increased significantly – from 11.7 in 1991, to an all-time high of 19.0 in 2016.  See table 2.20.


Births by NUTS III Regional authority areas

In 2017, the highest number of births 18,203 (or 29.4%) took place in the Dublin regional authority area.  In contrast, the smallest number of births (4,033) was in the Midland region (Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath) with 6.5% of all births.  See table 2.21 and background notes.


Births by Maternity hospital

The highest number of births in 2017 was recorded in the National Maternity hospital, Holles Street with 13.8% (8,524) of all births.  This was followed by the Rotunda Hospital (8,337) and The Coombe Womens & Infants University hospital (8,130) accounting for 13.5% and 13.2% of all births respectively.  Outside of Dublin, Cork University Maternity hospital had the highest number of births with 7,351 births or 11.9% of all births in 2017.  See table 2.17.


Domiciliary births

There were 286 domiciliary births in 2017,  37 less than the 323 recorded in 2016.  Such births have dropped from one in three births in the early 1950’s to 4.6 per thousand live births in 2017.  Domiciliary births include home births and other births that take place in a location other than a hospital.  See table 2.17.


Nationality of parents

In 2017, 77.3% of mothers were of Irish nationality, 2.1% of UK nationality, 1.9% of EU-15 (excluding Ireland and the UK) nationality.  There were 11.4% mothers of EU-28 (excluding EU-15) nationality and 7.1% of other nationality.  The nationality of the mother was not stated for 0.1% of births.  See tables 2.24a and 2.24b.


Birthweight

In 2017, babies with a birthweight of between 3,500 and 3,999 grams accounted for the highest percentage of births of known birthweight at 34.6%.  The majority of babies (57.2%) in this group and of known gestation, had a gestational age of 40 weeks and over.  See tables 2.13, 2.14 and 2.15.


Gestation

In 2017, babies with a gestational age of 36-39 weeks represented the majority (50.4%) of births of known gestation.  Babies with a gestational age of under 28 weeks represented the lowest percentage of all births at 0.4%.  The gestational age of 1.3% of all births was not stated.  See tables 2.12, 2.14 and 2.16.


Occupation of Mother

In 2017, just under one in five mothers (19.7%) stated their occupation as homemaker.  The number varied widely according to the age group of the mother, with 56.2% of mothers under 20 years and 43.9% of mothers in the 20-24 year age group, respectively recording their occupation as homemaker.  In contrast, only 13.9% of mothers in the 30-39 year age group stated their occupation to be that of homemaker while 13.9% of mothers over 40 years were in this category.  See table 2.25.

 

Birth order

A total of 23,595 births (38.2%) were to first time mothers in 2017. Second time mothers had 21,477 births (34.7%) and third time mothers had 11,159 births (18.0%). Mothers that already had three or more live-born children accounted for the remaining 9.0% of births.  See table 2.8.

For long labels below use
to display on multiple lines		Birth Order 2017 (%)
1st38.2
2nd34.7
3rd18
4th5.9
5th and over3.1

Total Period Fertility Rate

The total period fertility rate (TPFR) is derived from the age-specific fertility rates.  It gives the theoretical average number of children who would be born alive to a woman during her lifetime if she were to pass through her childbearing years conforming to the age-specific fertility rates of a given year.  A value of 2.1 is generally taken to be the level at which a generation would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.


The TPFR has fallen by over 23% in the past 30 years, from 2.31 in 1987 to 1.77 in 2017.  In Ireland, it dropped below the replacement level in 1989 and again in 1991 and has remained there since.  If Ireland's TPFR had been 2.1 for 2017 then the natural increase in population would have been 37,261 (the actual natural increase was 31,406).  See table 2.1.


France had the highest fertility rate in the EU 28 in 2017 with 1.90; Sweden is next with a fertility rate of 1.78 followed closely by Ireland with a rate of 1.77.  Malta had the lowest fertility rate at 1.26 (estimated).  See fig 2.4.

 

CountryFertility rate
France1.9
Sweden1.78
Ireland1.77
Denmark1.75
United Kingdom1.74
Romania1.71
Czech Republic1.69
Latvia1.69
Belgium1.65
Lithuania1.63
Netherlands1.62
Slovenia1.62
Estonia1.59
Germany1.57
Bulgaria1.56
Hungary1.54
Austria1.52
Slovakia1.52
Finland1.49
Poland1.48
Croatia1.42
Luxembourg1.39
Portugal1.38
Greece1.35
Italy1.32
Cyprus1.32
Spain1.31
Malta1.26

For definitions see technical notes:

Technical notes births

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Table 2.1 Total period fertility rate (TPFR) and age specific fertility rates (ASFR), 1968-2017

Table 2.1a Number of births in Ireland* and birth rates per 1,000 population in Ireland and neighbouring countries, 1941 to 2017

Table 2.2 Age specific and total fertility rates by area of residence of mother in 2016

Table 2.3 Births by area of residence and age-group at maternity in 2017

Table 2.4 Births by area of residence, sex of infant and also showing the numbers in each quarter in 2017

Table 2.5 Births in 2017, classified by sex and age of mother at maternity, and showing the number of births outside marriage/civil partnership separately, also showing the number outside marriage residing at the same address

Table 2.6 Total births in 2017, classified by sex of infant, area of residence and age-group of mother at maternity

Table 2.7 Births outside marriage/civil partnership in 2017 classified by sex of infant, area of residence and age-group of mother at maternity

Table 2.8 Total births in 2017, classified by age of mother at maternity and number of previous liveborn children

Table 2.9 Births outside marriage/civil partnership in 2017, classified by age of mother at maternity and number of previous liveborn children

Table 2.10 Births within marriage/civil partnership in 2017, classified by age of mother at maternity and year of marriage/civil partnership

Table 2.11 First births within marriage/civil partnership in 2017, classified by age of mother at maternity and year of marriage/civil partnership

Table 2.12 Births in 2017 classified by period of gestation and age-group of mother at maternity

Table 2.13 Births in 2017, classified by age-group of mother at maternity and birthweight

Table 2.14 Births in 2017, classified by period of gestation and birthweight

Table 2.15 Births in 2017, classified by sex of infant and birthweight

Table 2.16 Births in 2017 classified by sex of infant and period of gestation

Table 2.17 Numbers of hospital and domiciliary births in 2017 showing place of occurrence and area of normal residence of mother

Table 2.18 Births in 2017 by day of occurrence and mothers' usual residence

Table 2.19 Births per 1,000 women in each age-group, Ireland, England and Wales, 2017

Table 2.20 Number of multiple births and the number of twins per 1,000 maternities, 1988-2017

Table 2.21 Births and birth rate by area of residence of mother during 2017, showing births within and outside of marriage/civil partnership separately

Table 2.22 Average age at maternity by area of residence of mother during 2017 showing births inside and outside marriage/civil partnership separately

Table 2.23 Births inside and outside marriage/civil partnership and rates per 1,000 population, 1864-2017

Table 2.24a Total births in 2017, classified by nationality of mother, marital status and average age

Table 2.24b Total births in 2017, classified by nationality of parents

Table 2.24c Total births in 2017 classified by country of birth of mother, by number and percentage, showing numbers within and outside of marriage separately

Table 2.25 Births in 2017 by occupation and age-group of mother at maternity

Table 2.26 Percentage distribution of births according to age-group of mother at maternity in 2017 and comparisons with 2016, 1987 and 1967

Table 2.27 Births in 2017, classified by average age of mother at maternity and rank within the European Union

Table 2.28 Births in 2017, showing the percentage of births to mothers' under 20 years of age by country of residence within the European Union

Go to next chapter >>> Deaths

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