This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures, and limitations of this release, see the Background Notes section.
The CSO conducted a geocoding exercise to assign birth and death registration data to Health Service Executive (HSE) Regions as well as Census 2022 boundaries. This allows the analysis of births and deaths by factors including health regions, degree of urbanisation and rurality, along with levels of deprivation. In total, around 99% of records were assigned to a Census 2022 Small Area.
In 2025, two out of every ten deaths registered in Ireland occurred in either a Disadvantaged (5,172 - 14.5%), Very Disadvantaged (1,725 - 4.5%) or Extremely Disadvantaged (330 - 0.9%) area.
Of the 54,125 births registered in 2025, nearly one out of every four (12,998) took place in the Health Service Executive (HSE) Dublin and North East health region.
Of the 35,587 deaths registered in 2025, two out of every ten (7,342) took place in the HSE Dublin and North East health region.
The HSE Mid West health region was the area with the lowest number of births and deaths in 2025, with 4,204 births and 3,164 deaths.
Women aged 30 to 34 in the HSE Dublin and North East health region were the group with the greatest number of births in 2025 at 4,569.
When considering births and deaths by urban and rural Status, Highly Rural / Remote Areas accounted for 7.5% of births (4,065 of 54,125) and 11.8% of deaths (4,207 of 35,587).
Five of the six different urban rural classifications all experienced a positive natural increase where there were more births than deaths. This was different for Highly Rural / Remote Areas where there were 142 more deaths than births registered in 2025.
Areas considered as Very Disadvantaged experienced a negative natural increase with 50 more deaths than births recorded in 2025.
Today’s release also backdates Health Region life event figures back to 2019. This allows users to examine the evolution of births and deaths over an extended period. Please note, data for the years 2019 to 2023 are based on the year the birth and death occurred, while for 2024 and 2025 it is based on the year the birth and death were registered. These latest periods will be updated over time in line with the Vital Statistics Annual Report and revision releases.
All the data contained within this release, is available in the Data Chapter.
Of the 35,587 deaths registered in Ireland in 2025, 20.6% (7,342) took place in the HSE Dublin and North East health region. The HSE Mid West health region was the area with the lowest number of deaths at 3,164 or 8.9% of total deaths.
Similarly, of the 54,125 births registered in 2025, nearly a quarter (12,998) took place in the HSE Dublin and North East health region. Again, the HSE Midwest health region was the area with the lowest number of births with 4,204 or 7.8% of total births registered (See Map 1).
In 2025, 1.0% (555) births were to teenage mothers, while 0.8% (410) were to mothers aged 45 years and over. This was similar across all six health regions.
Mother's aged 30 to 34 in the HSE Dublin and North East health region was the cohort with the greatest number of births in 2025 at 4,569 or 8.4% of total births. In contrast, mother's aged 45 years and over in the HSE Mid West health region was the cohort with the lowest number of births in 2025 with 33 or 0.1% of total registered births (See Table 1).
Almost four out of every ten deaths registered in 2025 (36.4%) was to those aged 85 years and over. Those aged 85 years and over had the largest contribution to total deaths with 12,938 or 36.4% of the total.
More than half of the deaths (18,763 or 52.7%) were to males in 2025, with the remaining being female (16,824 deaths or 47.3%). This pattern was seen across all six health regions where more males died than females. (See Table 2)
The following section provides information on births and deaths by urban and rural status. This classification has six urban and rural area types. For context, below are the groupings and a full map of the classification can be seen here.
Of the 54,125 births in 2025, one in every three (33%) took place in Cities, followed by Independent Urban Towns (9,991 or 18.5%), Rural Areas with High Urban Influence (8,750 or 16.2%), Satellite Urban Towns (7,690 or 14.2%), Rural Areas With Moderate Urban Influence (5,792 or 10.7%), and finally Highly Rural / Remote Areas (4,065 or 7.5%) (See Table 3).
In comparison, of the 35,587 deaths registered, a third took place in Cities (11,661 or 32.8%), followed by Independent Urban Towns (6,417 or 18%), Rural Areas With High Urban Influence (5,122 or 14.4%), Rural Areas With Moderate Urban Influence (4,605 or 12.9%), Highly Rural / Remote Areas (4,207 or 11.8%), and finally Satellite Urban Towns (3,364 or 9.5%) (See Table 3).
For the first time, we are also able to look at the natural increase by these types of geographies which provides significant insights. While at a national level the natural increase stood at 18,538 (more births than deaths), it varied across types of urban and rural areas. All areas, except for those classified as High Rural / Remote Areas experienced a positive natural increase. There were 142 more deaths than births in these types of areas in 2025.
The following section provides information on births and deaths by deprivation status. This classification has eight deprivation types classified based on Census 2022 data with seven presented in the data here. For context, below are the groupings with examples of areas within Ireland which fall into these groupings and a full map can be seen here.
While most births (68.4% or 37,008 of 54,125) in 2025 took place in areas which were classified as Marginally Below or Marginally Above Average looking at areas considered Affluent and Disadvantaged provides interesting insights. Less than one in every ten births (9.6%) in 2025 took place in a Disadvantaged area, while 3.9% of births took place in either Very Disadvantaged (3.1%) or Extremely Disadvantaged (0.8%) areas.
In terms of Affluent areas, less than two out of ten births (18%) took place in either Affluent (15.8%) or Very Affluent areas (2.2%).
While just more than one in every ten births took place in areas ranging from Disadvantaged to Extremely Disadvantaged, for deaths, this was two in every ten (20.3%). Similarly, while almost two in every ten births (18%) took place in either Affluent or Very Affluent areas, for deaths, this was less than one in every ten deaths (9%).
Across the different types of deprivation, nationally, all areas experienced a positive natural increase, except for areas classified as Very Disadvantaged where there were 40 more deaths than births (See Table 4).
When it came to cause of death, Neoplasms (10,856) and Diseases of the Circulatory system (9,558) together accounted for over half (57.4%) of all deaths registered in 2025.
Looking at causes of death by Health Region provides some notable regional trends. For instance, of the 35,587 deaths registered in Ireland in 2025 the largest single contributor to this was Neoplasms in the HSE Dublin and North East Health Region, which accounted for 6.5% or 2,299 of all deaths.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (10 September 2026) published Births and Deaths by Health Region 2025.
Commenting on the new release, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said:
"Today’s release, which is part of the CSO Frontier Series provides information and evidence on life events such as births and deaths at not only HSE health region, but also by the degree of deprivation and urban and rural status. For this release, the CSO has introduced new methods for enhancing the geocoding of birth and death statistics to allow for analysis by health regions, area deprivation status, and degree of urban / rural in areas. Care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and / or data sources which may be incomplete.
Overall Results
This release not only captures registered births and deaths by health region for the year 2025 but also contains backdated health region birth and death data from 2019 (See Editor’s Note below).
In terms of life events registered in 2025, the majority tended to take place in the HSE Dublin and North East health region. Of the 35,587 deaths registered in 2025, this region accounted for two out of every ten (7,342 deaths) and for almost a quarter (12,998 births) of the 54,125 births registered in 2025.
In contrast, the HSE Mid West health region was the area with the lowest number of births and deaths in 2025, with 4,204 births and 3,164 deaths.
Age of Mothers
In 2025, 1.0% (555) of births were to teenage mothers, while 0.8% (410) were to mothers aged 45 years and over. This was similar across all six health regions. Mothers aged 30 to 34 in the HSE Dublin and North East health region were the group with the greatest number of births in 2025 at 4,569 or 8.4% of total births. In contrast, mothers aged 45 years and over in the HSE Mid West health region were the group with the lowest number of births in 2025 with 33 or 0.1% of total registered births.
Births and Deaths by Location
In 2025, one out of every three deaths occurred in Cities (11,661 of 35,587), with a similar share for births (17,748 of 54,125). In contrast, around one in every ten deaths (4,207 of 35,587) occurred in areas classified as being Highly Rural / Remote, while for births it was 7.5% (4,065 of 54,125).
Age at Death
Nationally, 12,938 (or 36.4%) of deaths were to those aged 85 years or older in 2025. This share was lowest in the HSE Dublin and Midlands health region when it accounted for 33.1% of deaths, and was highest in HSE Dublin and South East health region when it was 38.7%.
Natural Increase
In 2025, the natural increase which is births less deaths stood at 18,538. Five of the six different urban rural classifications all experienced a positive natural increase where there were more births than deaths, except for regions considered Highly Rural / Remote where there were 142 more deaths than births registered in 2025.
Looking at the natural increase across different levels of deprivation, areas considered to be Very Disadvantaged were the only areas to experience a negative natural increase with 40 more deaths taking place than births.”