THERE WERE MORE babies born in the first three months of this year than during any other quarter since records began in 1960.

According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 19,950 births registered in the first quarter of the year.

That marks a 7.6 per cent increase on the same three-months last year and the highest number of babies born in any quarter since records began over 50 years ago.

Of those born, 10,221 were boys and 9,729 were girls and about 40 per cent were to first-time mothers.

The figures are higher than those seen in the second quarter of 1980, which had previously held the record with 19,339 births.

Between January and March 2011, Fingal in Dublin recorded the highest birth rate of 25.3 per 1,000 population. South Tipperary had the lowest birth rate in the country at 12.6 per 1,000 population.

The average age of mothers for births registered was 31.7 years.

In its vital statistics report, the CSO notes that 34 per cent of all births registered as “outside marriage”. Of these, 3,622 births were to unmarried parents with the same address.

Altogether, 3,052 marriages took place between January and March. That is about 329 fewer than in the same period in 2010. However, when compared with the first quarter of 2002, there was an increase of 568.

Population increase

The natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) for the first three months of the year was 12,299. There were 7,651 deaths registered during the period, the majority of which were of persons over 65-years-of-age.

The leading cause of death varied between age groups. Among young adults aged 15 to 34, external causes, including accidents and suicides, ranked first.

For individuals aged 35 to 74, cancers were the biggest cause of death.