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.
Of the 54,483 births which occurred in 2022, North Inner City, Dublin City was the LEA with the highest number of births at 701.
In 2022, the birth rate per 1,000 of population was highest in Tallaght South, South Dublin at 13.7.
Glenties, Co. Donegal had the lowest birth rate in 2022, at 7.4 per 1,000 of population.
The fertility rate for women 15-49 years of age was highest in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford with 57.0 births per 1,000 women, and lowest in Galway City Central, Galway City with 27.8 per 1,000 women in 2022.
There were 35,804 deaths across Ireland in 2022 with Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City, recording the highest proportion of deaths at 1.5% or 553 deaths.
Belmullet, Co. Mayo was the LEA with the highest crude death rate per 1,000 at 11.5 deaths per 1,000 of population, while Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal recorded the lowest at 2.8.
In terms of cause of death, Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim had the highest crude death rate due to diseases of the circulatory system, which encompass heart attacks and strokes, at 361.7 per 100,000, while Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal had the lowest at 66.8 per 100,000 for this cause of death.
In 2022, 15 out of 166, or 9% of Ireland's LEAs experienced a negative natural increase, which is when more deaths are recorded than births. These areas included LEAs in Dublin (3), Kerry (3), Mayo (2), and Clare, Cork, Donegal, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, and Wexford (all 1).
All the data contained within this publication, is available in the Data Chapter.
Map 1 is an interactive map which allows users to examine various statistics across Ireland's 166 local electoral areas. Statistics include, the number of births and deaths occurring, crude death and birth rates and both the natural increase (births less deaths), natural increase rate (birth rate less the death rate), and age specific fertility rates (the number of live births at a certain age (or age-group) divided by the female population at that age (or age-group) multiplied by 1,000).
Regarding the maps presented, lighter colours correspond with the LEAs containing lower values, while darker colours indicate higher.
Users can hover their mouse over the map to see the name of the LEA and the associated value within it. Users can also zoom in on the map to see some of the LEAs that are smaller in geographical areas.
The majority of births and deaths occurred in and around Dublin in 2022.
Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City, was the LEA with the largest number of deaths in 2022, with 553, while North Inner City, Dublin had the largest number of births at 701.
Tralee, Co. Kerry was the LEA outside of the Dublin Local Authorities with the largest number of deaths with 386. For births, Naas, Co. Kildare was the LEA outside of Dublin with the largest number of births at 599.
In contrast, Lismore, Co. Waterford, had the lowest number of births with 106, while Granard, Co. Longford, and Milford, Co. Donegal had the joint lowest number of deaths with 85.
Looking at the number of births and deaths together allows for the calculation of the natural increase (births less deaths). For 2022, 15 LEAs (9%) recorded a negative natural increase indicating more deaths than births were registered in the LEA. Of these 15 LEAs, there were 3 in Kerry, 2 in Mayo, and 1 each in Clare, Cork County, Donegal, Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, South Dublin, and Wexford.
In reviewing the population within each LEA we examined the number of births, deaths, natural increase rates per 1,000 of population. While these rates do not account for differences in age structures within each LEA, it does account for populations.
As Figure 1 indicates, Ireland's Birth Rate for 2022 stood at 10.2 births per 1,000 of population. Tallaght South, South Dublin (13.7), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (13.3), and Ongar, Fingal, Co. Dublin (13.2) had the highest birth rates by LEA. Glenties, Co. Donegal (7.4), Killiney-Shankill, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (7.6), and Galway City Central, Galway City (7.6) recorded the lowest birth rates.
While the crude death rate nationally was 6.7 deaths per 1,000 of population, Belmullet, Co. Mayo (11.5), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (11.1), and Swinford, Co. Mayo (10.7) were the LEAs with the highest rate. In contrast, urban LEAs such as Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (2.8) Co. Dublin, Lucan, South Dublin (3.0), Swords, Fingal, Co. Dublin (3.4), and Maynooth, Co. Kildare (3.4) recorded some of the lowest crude death rates.
Ireland's national rate of increase per 1,000 of population stood at 3.5 in 2022. LEAs in Dublin such as Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (9.7), Ongar, Fingal (9.7), and Tallaght South, South Dublin (9.6) were regions with some of the highest rates of natural increase.
The next section provides an overview on the various underlying causes of death across Ireland's LEAs in 2022.
When it came to cause of death, Neoplasms (10,361) and Diseases of the Circulatory system (9,931) together accounted for over half (56.7%) of all deaths in 2022. The seven groupings discussed below accounted for nearly nine out of ten (87.5%) of all deaths registered in Ireland in 2022. Map 2 presents crude death rates per 100,000 of population by these underlying causes of death.
Below highlights the top three highest LEAs in terms of a selection of causes of death. Note that PxStat tables provide not only the crude death rates per 100,000 of population but also the number of deaths recorded which users should look at in tandem in order to understand the pattern of deaths across Ireland's LEAs.
These relate to neoplasm deaths which can be benign or malignant (cancerous). In 2022, the LEAs with the three highest rates per 100,000 of population included Tralee, Co. Kerry (334.5), Swinford, Co. Mayo (315.2), and Roscrea-Templemore, Co. Tipperary (313.3).
These include causes of death which relate to ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, hypertensive diseases along with other circulatory system diseases. In 2022, this rate per 100,000 of population was highest in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim (361.7), Belmullet, Co. Mayo (349.9), and Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (338.8).
These include causes of death such as influenza, pneumonia, and bronchitis, as well as other respiratory diseases. In 2022, this rate per 100,000 of population was highest in Manorhamilton, Co. Leitrim (148.0), Ballinasloe, Galway County (137.5), and Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (131.1).
These include causes of death which can be due to dementia, amongst other mental and behavioural disorders. Buncrana, Co. Donegal (101.9), Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City (100.4), and Dún Laoghaire, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (99.5) were the LEAs with the highest crude death rates for this cause of death in 2022.
These include deaths due to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, along with other deaths relating to nervous system and sensory organs. Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim (79.4), Conamara North, Galway County (77.9), and Kenmare, Co. Kerry (75.5) had the highest crude death rates for these diseases at LEA level.
These include deaths resulting from accidents, self-harm, assault, and other external factors which cause death. In 2022, Castleisland, Co Kerry (70.8), Ballymote-Tobercurry, Co. Sligo (69.5), and Skibbereen-West Cork, Cork County (63.0) had the highest rates for these manner of deaths per 100,000.
These include deaths due to COVID-19 when the virus was identified and or not identified as part of laboratory testing. Swinford, Co. Mayo (80.1), Rathfarnham-Templeogue, South Dublin (67.4), and Belmullet, Co. Mayo (62.2) had the highest incidence of COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 of population in 2022.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (05 August 2025) released Births and Deaths at Local Electoral Areas (LEA) 2022.
Commenting on the Frontier publication, 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 Local Electoral Area (LEA). 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. The population used to calculate rates and present average age at LEA level for 2022 was taken from the Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS). IPEADS includes population statistics that are entirely based on administrative records, and as this release uses experimental methodology, IPEADS estimates are not official population statistics and are not comparable with Census of Population data.
Overall Results
The CSO has been collating and analysing significant life events for decades. This release, not only captures births and deaths at LEA level for the year 2022, also contains backdated LEA level birth and death data from 2019 (See Editor’s Note below). As a result of this work, we have observed for the first time in our LEA time-series an increase in the number of LEAs which are recording a greater number of deaths than births. Looking at the 166 LEAs during the period from 2019 to 2021, three LEAs on average witnessed more deaths than births. However, in 2022, the number of LEAs which recorded more deaths than births had risen to 15 (See full list below).
Taking the LEA of Belmullet Co. Mayo as an example, it was one of the LEAs which recorded the lowest number of births in 2022 and had the highest crude death rate of 11.5 per 1,000 people. As a result of recording some of the lowest birth rates in the country and the highest crude death rate in 2022, it topped the list of the 15 LEAs which had the highest negative natural increase rate in 2022, at -2.9. Negative natural increases indicates than more deaths than births have been recorded
Looking at the overall figures, we can see there were 35,804 deaths in Ireland in 2022, with the LEAs of Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City (553), Ballymun-Finglas, Dublin City (517), and Clontarf, Dublin City (509) recording the highest number of deaths. In contrast, Granard, Co. Longford (85), Milford, Co. Donegal (85), and Leixlip, Co. Kildare, (86) recorded some of the lowest numbers of deaths.
Similarly for births, many of the 54,483 births which occurred in 2022 were in and around the Dublin area. North Inner City, Dublin City (701), Ballymun-Finglas, Dublin City (688), and Cabra-Glasnevin, Dublin City (678) were the LEAs with the highest number of births. Lismore, Co. Waterford (106), Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim (110), and Belmullet, Co. Mayo (110) had the lowest number of births in 2022.
Birth Rates at LEA
Nationally, the birth rate stood at 10.2 per 1,000 of population in 2022. Tallaght South, South Dublin (13.7), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (13.3), and Ongar, Fingal (13.2), were the LEAs with the highest birth rates.
Glenties, Co. Donegal (7.4), Killiney-Shankill, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (7.6), Galway City Central, Galway City (7.6) were the LEAs with the lowest birth rates in 2022.
Fertility
The general fertility rate is defined as the number of births by women aged 15-49, relative to the population of women aged 15-49. This differs from the birth rate, which looks at the entire population in an area, while the fertility rate only focuses on women.
Nationally, the fertility rate stood at 42.3 births per 1,000 women aged 15-49 in 2022. Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (57.0), Newcastle West, Co. Limerick (53.5), Loughrea, Co. Galway, Tramore-Waterford City West, Co. Waterford, and Moate, Co. Westmeath (all 52.9) were the LEAs with the highest general fertility rate in 2022.
Urban LEAs such as Galway City Central, Galway City (27.8), South-East Inner City, Dublin City (29.7), and North Inner City, Dublin City (31.6) had the lowest general fertility rate per 1,000 women.
Crude Death Rates
The national crude death rate, which is the number of deaths divided by the population in an area, stood at 6.7 per 1,000 of population in 2022. Please note that crude death rates do not take the differences in age structures across LEAs into account.
LEAs such as Belmullet, Co. Mayo (11.5), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (11.1), and Swinford, Co. Mayo (10.7) recorded the highest level of crude death rates in 2022.
Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (2.8), Lucan, South Dublin (3.0), Swords, Fingal (3.4), and Maynooth, Co. Kildare (3.4) had the lowest crude death rates per 1,000 of population in 2022.
The Natural Increase
Looking at births and deaths together allows the calculation of the natural increase, which is the number of births minus the number of deaths. It provides a snapshot of how a region's population is evolving. The natural increase does not take account of inward or outward migration. Nationally, the natural increase for 2022 stood at 18,679 and the rate of natural increase stood at 3.5. However, this varied significantly across LEAs.
The LEAs with the highest natural increase rates in 2022 were Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (9.7), Ongar, Fingal (9.7), and Tallaght South, South Dublin (9.6).
In LEAs such as Ennistimon, Co. Clare (0.2), and Lismore, Co. Waterford (0.0), the rate of natural increase was close to neutral.
In 2022, 15 LEAs recorded a negative natural increase rate, indicating more deaths than births occurred in the LEA. These areas, in descending order, were:
Cause of Death by LEA
Looking at cause of death across LEAs, our analysis indicated different patterns for the deaths that were recorded. For instance, while the crude death rate due to neoplasms (tumours and cancer) stood at 194.3 per 100,000 of population nationally in 2022, Tralee, Co. Kerry had the highest death rate for this cause at 334.5 per 100,000.
For external causes of death, which can include deaths due to suicide, accidents, and other external factors, nationally this rate stood at 31.3 per 100,000 in 2022. However, at an LEA level, these crude rates were highest in Castleisland, Co. Kerry (70.8), Ballymote-Tobercurry, Co. Sligo (69.5), and Skibbereen-West Cork, Cork County (63.0).”
Editor's Note
Today’s release also backdates LEA life event figures back to 2019. This allows users to examine the evolution of births, deaths, the natural increase, along with the cause of death in their local area from 2019 to 2022.