Marriage rates in the Republic soared during the economic boom and so too did birth rates, according to a report published today.
The
Families in Irelandreport - compiled by researchers from University College Dublin for the Department of Social and Family Affairs - points to a 40 per cent increase in marriages from 1995 to 2006.
It also notes a 46 per cent rise in births over the period, from 48,255 in 1994 to 70,620 in 2007, despite the increased costs of housing and childcare.
Prof Tony Fahey, professor of social policy and head of the school of applied social science at UCD, said the figures suggested the state of the economy and the labour market may have a bigger impact on childbearing than the level of government supports.
The huge number of births last year may have been partly due to the numbers of migrants who came here now beginning to start families, he suggested. He added that while the three-child family had become rare in parts of Europe, they are still quite common in Ireland.
He also said the surge in marriages over the past decade has been partly driven by the growth in numbers of people in the 20 to 40 year age bracket, but also partly by the rise in propensity to marry.
There has also been a sharp rise in the age at which people marry over the period, with marriages before the age of 30 years declining and marriages after that age rising.
Overall Prof Fahey there had been a rise in couple formation over the past decade, with not just the numbers marrying on the increase but so too are the numbers cohabiting. There has been a fourfold rise in cohabitation between 1996 and 2006. Many of these are younger couples but they also include some older couples with children.
Meanwhile, the report shows the incidence of marital breakdown, which has increased considerably since the 1980s, is still relatively low by international standards.
Prof Fahey pointed out that official statistics indicate there has been no rush to divorce among already separated couples here since divorce was legalised in 1996. Neither has the advent of divorce had any detectable effect on underlying trends in marital breakdown with the steady growth in marital breakdown as great before 1996 as after it and in fact it appears to have levelled off in recent years.
The report indicates there continues to be a high usage of legal remedies for marital breakdown other than divorce with many preferring to opt for applications in the District Court around custody instead.
The report also shows there has been a decline in the volume of domestic violence applications like applications for barring orders among spouses in the District Court since the early 1990s. This decline from 4,873 domestic violence orders for spouses in 1995 to 3,329 in 2006 is unexplained.
The publication also highlights the higher risk of poverty found among lone parent families and those two parent families with more than four children.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said the report challenged many of the myths that were out there, such as the myth that marriage had gone out of fashion. But she said she hoped the increase in marriages during the boom had to do with love and commitment rather than economics because at the end of the day it was love and commitment that would keep people together.
The report comes from drawing together recent data from a number of sources including the census, rather than from brand new research.