HOW MANY WEDDINGS do you have this year?
It’s a common around-the-watercooler-in-the-office question for those in their late-20s or early-30s.
And it seems the statistics back up the usual answers of, “Countless”. “I don’t know.” “Loads.”
According to the CSO, there were 7,760 marriages registered in Ireland between the 1 July and 30 September last year. That’s just five fewer than in the corresponding quarter of 2012.
Although…it was 616 fewer than in the Celtic Tiger boom year of 2004.
However, a report in today’s Irish Catholic could explain some of the disparity. The newspaper reports how one church has reported a surge in ‘off season’ or winter weddings by candlelight in a bid to cut costs.
In a move described as a “flexible approach”, priests in the parish of Cherry Orchard began offering evening weddings across the winter months at the end of 2013, allowing for candlelit services which subsequently took pressure off couples to stage a full day’s event.
The Vital Statistics quarterly information bulletin also details the number of babies born in the three-month period.
Between July and October, there were 17,729 births registered in the country, a 1.4 per cent decrease on 2012 figures.
The highest birth rate was recorded in Fingal and the lowest in Cork city.
About 6,243 births were registered as outside marriage with more than half of them to unmarried parents with the same address.
A total of 6,608 births (37.4 per cent) were to first-time mothers. The average age of first-time mums was 30.2 years.
There were 6,983 deaths registered the third quarter of 2013, an increase of 2.3 per cent in the number of deaths registered in the same period the previous year.
Almost one third of those deaths were attributed to circulatory disease, while another 2,188 were because of malignant cancers.
About 10 per cent were caused by respiratory diseases and another 356 due to accidents, suicides and other ‘external causes’.
Among 15 to 44 year olds, the top cause of death was accidents, suicide and other. For those aged 45 to 74, cancer was the leading cause of death.
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