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Methodology

All figures in this report are classified by year of occurrence.

Birth and death rates

Birth and death rates are calculated using 2018 estimated usual residence census of population figures.  

Usual Residence Population concept

From 2007 onwards, the population concept of usual residence has been used, i.e. all persons usually resident and present in the State on census night, plus absent persons who are usually resident in Ireland, but are temporarily away from home and outside the State on Census night. All persons are classified according to the region of their usual residence.

Prior to 2007 the defacto population concept was used, i.e. the total persons resident in the State on Census night.

Census of population data is used to calculate rates for Census years and estimated Census of population data is used to calculate rates for intercensal years.

Population revisions

In the 2016 Annual report the estimated population data used to calculate rates for births and deaths was revised for intercensal years 2012 to 2015.  Consequently, this resulted in some revision of rates for these years.

Births, classified by area of residence of mother

From January 2018 onwards where births take place within the State and the area of residence of the mother is outside the State, the area of residence of the mother is recorded as outside the State. Prior to this, births where the mother was residing outside the State were assigned to the location where the birth took place within the State.

Table 2.19: From 2018, birth rates for both within and outside marriage/civil partnership have been removed from this for reasons of unreliability. This is due to the low sample numbers being captured, in particular for younger age groups in the Labour Force Survey.   

NUTS2 and NUTS3 Regional Authority areas

The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were created by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. In 2003 the NUTS classification was established within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003).

As the administrative territorial breakdown of EU Member States is the basis of the NUTS classification, changes made under the 2014 Local Government Act prompted a revision to the Irish NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 Regions. These changes included the amalgamation of the local authorities of Tipperary North and South, Limerick City and County Councils and Waterford City and County Councils. In addition three Regional Assemblies were established (Northern & Western, Southern, Eastern & Midland).

The main changes at NUTS 3 level are the transfer of South Tipperary from the South-East into the Mid-West NUTS 3 region and the movement of Louth from the Border to the Mid-East NUTS 3 Region. There are now three NUTS 2 Regions which correspond to the Regional Assemblies established in the 2014 Local Government Act and are groupings of the new NUTS 3 Regions. The revisions made to the NUTS boundaries have been given legal status under Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/2066. The new NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 structure and classification are displayed in the table below:

NUTS3 Regional Authority areas:  Border, Midland, West, Dublin, Mid-East, Mid- West, South-East and South-West

The current regional classification came into effect on the 1st of January 2018. Tipperary North (Mid_West region) and Tipperary South (formally in the South-East region) were amalgamated into Tipperary and classified as part of the Mid-West region.  Louth has moved from the Border region to the Mid-East region.

The composition of the current NUTS regions effective from 1st January 2018 is as follows:

Northern and Western (Border and West), Southern (Mid-West, South-East and South-West) and Eastern and Midland (Dublin, Mid-East and Midland)

Northern and Western regions Eastern and Midland regions
Border Cavan Dublin Dublin City 
  Donegal   Dún Laoghlaire-Rathdown
  Leitrim   Fingal
  Monaghan   South Dublin
  Sligo Mid-East  Kildare
      Louth
West Galway City   Meath
  Galway County   Wicklow
  Mayo Midland Laois
  Roscommon   Longford
      Offaly
      Westmeath
  Southern Regions    
South-East Carlow  Mid-West Clare
  Kilkenny    Tipperary
  Waterford City and County   Limerick City and County
  Wexford South-West  Cork City
      Cork County
      Kerry

Births

This report contains upward revisions to previously published figures for the number of births occurring in 2008.  These revisions were first published in the Report on Vital Statistics 2009.    

Twinning rate revisions

The 1996 Annual Report contains revisions to the methodology used to calculate the twinning rate,  This takes better account of multiple births in which a baby was stillborn.

 For interactive tables, please go to CSO Statbank:

http://www.cso.ie/px/pxeirestat/statire/SelectTable/Omrade0.asp?Planguage=0

and open the People and Society folder.

 

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