Over the last decade, the number of births registered fell from 65,909 in 2015 to 54,125 in 2025.
The fertility rate for 2025 stood at 1.5, a decrease of 0.4 from the 2015 fertility rate of 1.9.
Over the last 10 years, the average age of first-time mothers (31.8 years in 2025) increased by 1.1 years when compared with 30.7 in 2015. Over a 20-year period, this has risen by 3.1 years when the average age was 28.7 years in 2005.
The number of deaths registered in 2025 was 35,587, which was 414 more than the 2024 figure of 35,173.
People aged 65 and over accounted for more than four-fifths (83.3% or 29,645) of all deaths in 2025.
For those aged under 55, the three most common causes of death were malignant neoplasms (852), external causes of injury and poisoning (631), and diseases of the circulatory system (477). These three groupings accounted for 67.4% of deaths for this age group.
Of the 19,898 marriages registered in 2025, 624 were same-sex marriages.
| Vital Statistics Summary Table | ||||
| 2025 | 2024 | 2015 | 2005 | |
| Births | 54,125 | 54,062 | 65,909 | 61,042 |
| Deaths | 35,587 | 35,173 | 29,952 | 27,441 |
| Marriages1 | 19,898 | 20,348 | 22,492 | 20,723 |
| Natural increase | 18,538 | 18,889 | 35,957 | 33,601 |
| Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 1.9 |
| Average age of mother | 33.3 | 33.3 | 32.5 | 31.0 |
| Average age of mother at first birth | 31.8 | 31.7 | 30.7 | 28.7 |
| 1 Marriage figure includes civil partnerships for 2015 | ||||
| Births | Deaths | Natural Increase | |
| 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 |
| 2025 | 9.9 | 6.5 | 3.4 |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (02 June 2026) published the Vital Statistics Yearly Summary 2025 release. The CSO has also published the latest quarterly results for Quarter 4 2025 today.
Commenting on the Yearly Summary report, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said:
"The CSO’s 2025 Vital Statistics yearly summary provides a snapshot of the life events (births, deaths and marriages) which were registered in the year 2025. Our Data chapter has access to the open data available in our PxStat tables.
Registration vs Occurrence
Quarterly and yearly summary Vital Statistics releases 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 54,125 births which were registered in 2025, 92.9% occurred in 2025, with the remaining occurring in 2024. For deaths (35,587), only 82.8% of the deaths registered in 2025 occurred in 2025, with the remainder having a date of death in 2024.
Crude Birth and Death Rates
There were 54,125 births registered in 2025, relatively unchanged when compared with 2024 registrations which stood at 54,062 births. This represented an annual birth rate of 9.9 per 1,000 of population compared with 10 years earlier when the annual birth rate was 14.1 per 1,000 population in 2015.
There were 35,587 deaths registered in Ireland in 2025, which equates to an annual death rate of 6.5 per 1,000 of population compared with 6.4 per 1,000 of population in 2015, and 6.6 in 2005.
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 2025 the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5 which is below replacement level. In 2015 the TPFR stood at 1.9.
Age of Mothers
The average age of a mother giving birth was 33.3 years in 2025, unchanged from 2024.
In 2015, this figure was 32.5 years and in 2005 it stood at 31.0 years.
Looking at longer term trends, the average age of first-time mothers (31.8 years in 2025) increased by 1.1 years over the last 10 years as it was 30.7 years in 2015. Over a 20-year period, this has risen by 3.1 years from 28.7 years in 2005.
Deaths
There were 35,587 registered deaths in Ireland in 2025, of which 18,763 were males and 16,824 were females.
There were 29,645 deaths registered for people aged 65 and over in 2025 and this accounted for more than four-fifths (83.3%) of all deaths. Those aged 85 years and over were the age group with the highest number of registered deaths at 12,938 or 36.4% in the year. In comparison, those aged one to four years were the group with the lowest number of deaths with just 20 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 161 infant deaths registered in 2025 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.0 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under four weeks. There were 124 neonatal deaths registered in 2025. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.3 in 2025. Both the infant mortality rate and neonatal mortality rate reduced from 2024 where they were 3.6 and 2.7 respectively.
Most Common Causes of Death
More than half of registered deaths in 2025 were from either malignant neoplasms such as cancerous tumours (10,591 or 29.8%) or diseases of the circulatory system (9,558 or 26.9%).
Deaths due to accidents, suicide, and other external causes accounted for a further 1,515 or 4.3% of death registrations. Of these 1,515 deaths, 370 or 24.4% 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 (852), external causes of injury and poisoning (631), and diseases of the circulatory system (477). These three groupings accounted for 67.4% of deaths for this age group.
For those aged 55 years and over, malignant neoplasms (9,739), diseases of the circulatory system (9,081), and diseases of the respiratory system (4,341) 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 2025, there were 1,261 late registered deaths (deaths registered in 2025 but occurred before 2024), which was down 18.5% from 1,547 in 2024, but an increase of 120.1% when compared with 2015 figures.
Marriages
There were 19,898 marriages registered in 2025 (down from 20,348 in 2024), of which 624 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in 2025 was 3.6 marriages per 1,000 of population, this compares with 4.8 marriages per 1,000 population in 2015."