IRELAND HAS the highest fertility rate in the 27 EU states, but the birthrate here still remains below the level needed to replace the population.
Figures by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday revealed the total fertility rate, or the average number of children per woman, increased from 2.05 in 2007 to 2.07 in 2008.
While this was the highest total fertility rate since 1991, it is still below the rate of 2.1 children that must be maintained to replace the population in the absence of migration.
France and the UK were just behind Ireland for fertility rates at 2.01 and 1.96 respectively. Hungary, Romania and Slovakia had the lowest rates at 1.35, 1.35 and 1.32 respectively.
The CSO's Report on Vital Statistics 2008reveals there were 73,996 children born in Ireland in 2008 – 38,040 males and 35,956 females. This was up 2,607 or 3.7 per cent from 2007, and up 20,027 or 37.1 per cent since 1998.
According to the CSO, the number of babies born in 2008 was the highest since 1980, when there were 74,064 births. That was the only year in the 20th century to have a higher birth rate.
Before that the highest number of births was in 1892, when there were 74,029 births in Ireland (excluding Northern Ireland).
It is the third consecutive annual increase in the number of births. The birth rate was 16.7 per 1,000 of the population compared with 16.5 in 2007 and 14.6 in 1998.
Some 78 per cent of births in 2008 were to mothers of Irish nationality, while 2.4 per cent were of UK nationality. A further 1.3 per cent were nationals of the EU 15 states (excluding Ireland and UK) and 8.7 per cent were of EU 27 nationality.
The remaining 9.5 per cent of births were to mothers of other nationalities.
Over 7 per cent of women in their 20s gave birth in 2008, and nearly 12 per cent of women in their 30s did so.
The average age of mothers at maternity in Ireland in 2008 was 31.2 years. In 1958 the average age at maternity was 31.7 years, just six months above the 2008 figure. In 1978 the average age was at a low of 28.8 years.
The total number of births outside marriage in 2008 was 24,732, or 33.4 per cent of all births.
The incidence of twins has increased “very significantly” over the past 20 years, the report noted. In 2008 the number of maternities which resulted in multiple live births was 1,327. These resulted in 1,297 sets of twins, 29 sets of triplets and one set of quadruplets. This equates to a “twinning” rate of 17.9 – the number of sets of twins per 1,000 live births. The rate of twin births in 1988 was just 11.8.
Some 282 babies were born at home in 2008. This was down some 29.3 per cent on the 2007 figure when there were 399 home births.
By month, more babies were born in July than in any other month in 2008, with 6,612 births. Fewer babies were born in February than in any other month, with just 5,688 births.
More babies were born on October 7th than on any other single day in 2008. Some 268 births took place that day.
There were 28,274 deaths in Ireland in 2008, of which 14,457 were males and 13,817 were females. This is equivalent to a rate of 6.4 deaths per 1,000 population compared to 6.5 in 2007 and 6.7 in 2006.
The standardised death rate for Ireland compared to other EU countries for 2008 is 5.89 per 1,000 of population. The figure is provisional. The rate is below the standardised rate of 6.2 for the EU 27 countries.
FERTILITY RATES CSO FIGURES:
31.2
average age of women giving birth
2.07
average number of children per woman
24,732
children born outside marriage
73,996
number of children born in Ireland