Over the last decade, the number of births registered fell from 67,462 in 2014 to 54,062 in 2024.
The fertility rate for 2024 stood at 1.5, a decrease of 0.5 from the 2014 fertility rate of 2.0.
The average age of first-time mothers (31.7 years) increased by 1.2 years in 2024 when compared with 10 years previous when it was 30.5 in 2014. Over a 20 year period this has increased by 3.2 years when it was 28.5 years in 2004.
The number of deaths registered in 2024 was 35,173, which was 286 fewer than the 2023 figure of 35,459.
Persons aged 65 and over, accounted for more than four-fifths (83.2% or 29,276) of all deaths.
For those aged under 55, the three most common causes of death were malignant neoplasms (890), external causes of injury and poisoning (701), and diseases of the circulatory system (441). These three groupings accounted for 69.4% of deaths for this age group.
Of the 20,348 marriages registered last year, 668 were same-sex marriages.
| Vital Statistics Summary Table | ||||
| 2024 | 2023 | 2014 | 2004 | |
| Births | 54,062 | 54,678 | 67,462 | 61,684 |
| Deaths | 35,173 | 35,459 | 29,095 | 28,151 |
| Marriages1 | 20,348 | 21,159 | 22,437 | 20,619 |
| Natural increase | 18,889 | 19,219 | 38,367 | 33,533 |
| Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.0 |
| Average age of mother | 33.3 | 33.2 | 32.3 | 30.8 |
| Average age of mother at first birth | 31.7 | 31.6 | 30.5 | 28.5 |
| 1 Marriage figure includes civil partnerships for 2014 | ||||
| Births | Deaths | Natural Increase | |
| 2014 | 14.5 | 6.3 | 8.3 |
| 2015 | 14.1 | 6.4 | 7.7 |
| 2016 | 13.5 | 6.4 | 7.1 |
| 2017 | 12.9 | 6.3 | 6.6 |
| 2018 | 12.5 | 6.4 | 6.1 |
| 2019 | 12.1 | 6.3 | 5.8 |
| 2020 | 11.1 | 6.3 | 4.8 |
| 2021 | 11.5 | 6.5 | 5 |
| 2022 | 11.1 | 6.8 | 4.3 |
| 2023 | 10.4 | 6.7 | 3.6 |
| 2024 | 10 | 6.5 | 3.5 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (23 May 2025) released the Vital Statistics Yearly Summary 2024 report. The CSO has also published Fourth Quarter 2024 results today.
Commenting on the Yearly Summary report, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said:
"The CSO’s 2024 Vital Statistics yearly summary provides a snapshot of the life events (births, deaths and marriages) which were registered in the year 2024. Our Data chapter has access to the open data available in our PxStat tables.
Registration vs Occurrence
Quarterly and yearly summary Vital Statistics reports provide figures on the number of births and deaths registered in a calendar year. Not all life events which are registered in a year occur in that particular year. For instance, of the 54,062 births which were registered in 2024, 91.3% occurred in 2024, with the remaining occurring in 2023. For deaths (35,173), only 82.6% of the deaths registered in 2024 occurred in 2024, with the remainder having a date of death in 2023.
Crude Birth and Death Rates
There were 54,062 births registered in 2024, a decrease of just over 1% when compared with 2023 registrations. This represented an annual birth rate of 10.0 per 1,000 of population compared with 10 years earlier when the annual birth rate was 14.5 per 1,000 population in 2014.
There were 35,173 deaths registered in Ireland in 2024, which equates to an annual death rate of 6.5 per 1,000 of population compared with 6.3 per 1,000 of population in 2014, and 7.0 in 2004.
Fertility
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 age 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 2024 the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5 which is below replacement level. In 2014 the TPFR stood at 1.9.
Age of Mothers
The average age of a mother at maternity was 33.3 years for 2024, up by 0.1 years from 2023, when it was 33.2 years.
In 2014, this figure was 32.3 years and in 2004 it stood at 30.8 years.
The average age of first-time mothers (31.7 years) increased by 1.2 years in 2024 when compared with 10 years previous when it was 30.5 in 2014. Over a 20 year period this has increased by 3.2 years when it was 28.5 years in 2004.
Deaths
There were 35,173 registered deaths in Ireland in 2024, of which 18,339 were males and 16,834 were females.
There were 29,276 deaths registered for persons aged 65 and over in 2024 and this accounted for more than four-fifths (83.2%) of all deaths. Those aged 85 years and over were the age group with the highest number of registered deaths at 12,739 or 36.2% in the year. In comparison, those aged one to four years were the group with the lowest number of deaths with just 18 or 0.1% of the total.
Infant Deaths
The death of a live-born infant under the age of one is categorised as an infant death. There were 197 infant deaths registered in 2024 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under four weeks. There were 147 neonatal deaths registered in 2024. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.7 in 2024.
Most Common Causes of Death
More than half of registered deaths in 2024 were from either malignant neoplasms (10,307 or 29.3%) or diseases of the circulatory system (9,594 or 27.3%).
Deaths due to accidents, suicide and other external causes accounted for a further 1,563 or 4.4% of death registrations. Of these 1,563 deaths, 351 or 22.5% 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 year will likely underrepresent the number of deaths which have occurred due to accidents, suicide or other external causes of mortality.
For those aged under 55, the three most common causes of death were malignant neoplasms (890), external causes of injury and poisoning (701), and diseases of the circulatory system (441). These three groupings accounted for 69.4% of deaths for this age group.
For those aged 55 years and over, malignant neoplasms (9,417), diseases of the circulatory system (9,153), and diseases of the respiratory system (4,187) were the three most common causes of death accounting for seven out of ten deaths.
Late registered deaths
Death due to intentional self-harm is classified as an unnatural death and therefore, must be referred to the Coroner for investigation. This investigation can take a protracted length of time to complete for various reasons, (such as getting medical reports, health and safety reports, engineer’s reports or the involvement of the Director of Public Prosecutions) and this delays the registration of such deaths. Moreover, in certain circumstances a death can occur of natural causes and subsequently be registered late (no next of kin, insufficient knowledge of the deceased etc.). For 2024, there were 1,547 late registered deaths (deaths registered in 2024 but occurred before 2023), which was up 35.2% from 1,144 in 2023, and an increase of 199.2% when compared to 2014 figures.
Marriages
There were 20,348 marriages registered in 2024 (down from 21,159 in 2023), of which 668 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in 2024 was 3.8 marriages per 1,000 of population, this compares with 4.7 marriages per 1,000 population in 2014".