Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »
Sat 08 Aug 2008Dramatic changes in our rates of births, deaths and marriages
A new jump in our birth rate could ease our immigration needs from 2030 onwards, writes Garret FitzGerald
FOR ALMOST 50 years I have been writing about the twists and turns of Irish demography. Some older readers might (but probably do not) recall my November 1963 prediction in this column that our marriage rate, (measured in terms of the ratio of marriages to total population), was then about to jump by more than 35 per cent. This forecast proved absolutely accurate, although honesty requires that I admit that this took only eight years to happen, rather than the 15 years that I had over-cautiously predicted.
Choose a Subscription type - required
