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WOMEN IN IRELAND had fewer children last year than in 2012, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office today.
In 2013, the fertility rate for Ireland was 1.96, down from 2.01 the previous year.
The figure takes into account females aged 15-49 years and represents the projected number of children a woman would have.
Some 68,930 births were registered last year – a drop of almost 3,300.
However, this figure still represents an 11.7 per cent increase on 2004, when just under 62,000 births took place.
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The average age women become mothers now stands at 32.1 years. Over a third of births in 2013 took place outside of marriage, while a quarter of all mothers here do not hold Irish nationality.
Teen pregnancies
In the ten year period from 2004, the number of teenage pregnancies dropped from 2,560 annually (4.2 per cent of the total number) to 1,381 last year (2 per cent of the total).
Some 21,770 marriages were registered in 2013, up by 1,057 from 2012.
Deaths
Just over 30,000 people died in 2013, an increase of 1,170 from 2012. Some 228 infants died, 164 of which represented babies under the age of four weeks.
Three in four deaths were due to cancer or heart problems.
There were 475 cases of death by suicide registered last year, a drop from 507 in 2012. Men accounted for the vast majority of these deaths – more than 83 per cent.
The number of young people, 15-24 year olds, who died by suicide decreased from 74 in 2012 to 57 last year.
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“Less fertile” is suggestive of an increasing medical problem amongst women. The truth is that for a lot they are simply choosing not to have children. Another factor is the emigration of a lot of young women who would otherwise have stayed and had children here.
No, it leaves out emigration and immigration. The TFR tells you how many babies the average woman will have in her lifetime. 2.1 is the “replacement rate” – below that, you see a declining population. That’s both a strength and a weakness in the measure. Substantial migration makes a mess of all the clever predictions which hang off it.
Either way, you’re right that it generally has nothing to do with medical problems. It measures fecundity, not fertility.
I second the view that the word fertility is mis-used. I would say Irish women are giving birth to fewer children or that the replacement rate is falling. Quite surprising that it’s below 2 in Ireland, I have to say.
What I don’t understand is why it doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone in the CSO to work out whether families are getting smaller or more women are not having any babies at all. (Or both). Surely family sizes are very relevant in determining social policy, tax policy, child benefits etc.? If they do this work, they hide it well.
@Brian. “Less fertile” simply means they’ve spent so much time living the high life or looking for Mr Perfect (who doesn’t exist, by the way—we are all fallible humans), they’ve forgotten their biological clock ticking away…
Sorry, Smiley, I didn’t realise you saw women as only baby factories. Do you think they shouldn’t be allowed to have good jobs or that they should just settle for the first guy they meet?
@Brian. I don’t see women as baby factories, but let’s face it, men can’t produce babies yet, apart from their little act at the beginning. So, I still maintain that women’s biological clocks do keep ticking, while woman look for the perfect partner, or save up for the perfect house, before committing to child-bearing. The optimal age for women’s fertility is 18 years old. One women are over 30 their fertility rates decrease dramatically. Hence the need for IVF treatment. If people would just accept that Mother Nature rules fertility, have he child or children they want, younger, then save for the house, the car, the clothes or whatever…
Remember, too, our Earth can only sustain a certain population. Fewer children being born is helping the Earth.
Actually sunshine it’s 35 when fertility really starts to decline in women, from 25-35 it’s only slightly. In actual fact what determines a successful fertilisation and pregnancy is the quality of the woman’s eggs, and it’s this quality that starts to decline after 35. Sperm quality in men over a certain age is also a determining factor.
But in fairness sunshine none of this matters if you don’t want or can’t afford children, or just choose not to do it on your own as you haven’t settled for some man just so you can have children… Thankfully we don’t live in the Middle Ages anymore!
@ Sean – those “scroungers” you speak off will be providing for your pension in later life. Less children means we will have a massive demographic crisis with not enough people to fuel the power plants, grow the food, build the houses and retirement homes, etc.
@ Rossa – What attitude is this you speak of? Would you like all your women to be obedient and subservient to their male owners?
Less fertile. Reading this is like reading about fertility among animals.
Well, considering women are deemed breeders in the ancient sacred texts and men are here to husband them, then the language of fertility makes sense.
Still archaic language use.
Oh my gosh!!!! Thank you Smiley for reminding me that my life is not mine to live! I am not on this planet to be a beneficial member of society, a contributor to my community! I am obviously here to be the the VESSEL that carries the spawn of such WORTHY specimens of the male species!! And these specimens should be determined as the first male that crosses my path. And yet something makes me think you would also be very negative towards those who are happily procreating without any thought of responsibility…
No one knows what’s going on in anyone’s relationship; in fact there maybe men out there who didn’t want kids and had vasectomy’s unknown to their partners or women who had tubal ligations or taking contraceptives their partners know nothing about. After all we all have choices these days not available to our parents and grandparents.
It’s appalling the used that sentence as the headline they could have led with the decline in teenage pregnancy.
Ah here. They’ve change the headline but it’s still wrong. The “fertility rate” speaks towards the number of children a woman may have. It does NOT represent the biological fertility of women – ie – the ability of women to have children.
The statistics show that less children were born per woman last year. It says absolutely nothing as far as I can see about women’s fertility. It just says the less children were born per woman.
@JeanPaul. Get over the PC crap, okay. So some can’t have children. That is difficult, but it has little to do with the fact that couples, generally, are having fewer (not less) children. Perspective is everything, in this case.
They’ve changed the headline twice now, from “less children” to “fewer” and then to one mentioning fertility! But the article text still says “less children”…
Not everyone living in a council estate are scrounging of the government, I was a teenage mom I had my son in 5th year went on to finish school done a course and I’m working full time, I’m not claiming rent allowance I am getting children’s allowance but every single parent in this country gets it whether there rich of poor so don’t go around tarring everyone from a council estate with the same brush get your facts right first
I have 3 children….my husband and I decided to try for #4. Found out last week it week it will be twins.
Thought it would be great to have the other childrens buggies and car seats etc…now it turns out we need to change the car, get new baby stuff……it is an expensive business but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
How are they sure it’s down to fertility problems, maybe people are being a lot more careful as not a lot of people are earning more than the minimum wage!!!
Sorry, Maria, I disagree. The more babies, the fewer resources to go around on our planet as a whole. As for your needing more babies to pay for your pension, how selfish are you? Save up for your own retirement, FFS, as I did.
Maybe fewer are having babies due to the fact people can’t afford to have them in Ireland. We can barely feed ourselves every week let alone bring an innocent into this messed up country that is bleeding everyone dry.
According to many geneticists like David Suzuki ,fertility for most humans will fall dramatically due to GMO foods as its not about changing the DNA of foods, it’s about changing our DNA and that’s why most elites only eat organic goods. Population control is the number one agenda on our planet at the moment.
How exactly, does the DNA contained in a GMO soya bean alter or in anyway affect the DNA I your body?
Is it genetically modified to emit gamma rays?
If your answer based on your comment is (which in truth should be) that you don’t know – then perhaps you shouldn’t spout that scientifically ridiculous rubbish?
And if you were familiar with David Suzuki’s work, which patently you are not – you would know that all he says about GMO foods is that the health effects are unproven and he says nothing referred to in your comment above.
I’ve always thought having a baby when you’re 17, 18 or 19 was a good time to have a child. You’ve finished school and you’ve the energy and enthusiasm to raise a small baby. Teen pregnancies falling 42% in the last 10 years will been seen as good thing by many, especially in our media. No one should have children unless they want them no matter what their age.
I see your point Jack. Biologically having a baby at that age is probably a good thing.
However, who is going to pay for it? What about providing stability for the child – I would be surprised if any 17, 18, 19 year has their own home and is in a relationship strong enough to withstand the pressures of having a child. Also, what about their own education? What about fun and having the chance to enjoy being young? What about travel and freedom?
I just think nowadays our life expectancies are so long and that we’re staying healthy for much longer that we can do almost everything at any age. We can go to college in our forties if we want. We can work until we’re 90 if we want. We can travel the world in our seventies. Yet still biologically when we’re young is the best time to have children.
Our culture and society in the west puts a huge value on getting a college degree in our early twenties and then looking for the perfect job afterwards. There’s nothing stopping an intelligent young woman at 18 or 19 having a few children, then going to college in her late twenties and then getting that dream job in her thirties. Then working and paying taxes for the next forty years.
Western media has frowned upon young women starting families early for a long time now. It’s probably one of the reasons why are birth rates are so low.
hahaha Jack that has to be the most ridiculous comment I’ve ever heard!! So there’s nothing stopping an intelligent young woman at 18 or 19 having a few children then going to college in her late twenties. Well let me think about what was stopping me.
Oh yeah, I was 18, I had no money bar that from a little part time babysitting job. I had no house, I lived at home and shared a room with my sister so I didn’t even have a room of my own. I had no boyfriend also. Like what do you expect to happen in this situation? I go out and get pregnant by some randomer because 18 is the best age to have a kid, then I live off the state for a few years with me and my baby in the same room as myself and my little sister and then I go to college afterwards when the kid is a bit older. And how do I pay for college and childcare for the kid at the same time? I could barely support myself through college as it was and that was with working all weekends which I wouldn’t be able to do with a child. And what about actually wanting to have kids with the person you love and want to spend the rest of your life with rather than some random guy you met at 18 years of age who could barely get entry into a nightclub.
So, Maria, how old are you. Are you part of the ‘me generation’ who forgets that, while you’re having fun, your biological clock is ticking. Jack has the solution, beautifully put.
CAK There’s never the perfect time to have a baby. If you wait for the perfect time with the perfect guy you’ll end up with no kids.
It is our society that encourages women to wait until they’re in their thirties before having children. That’s all I was saying.
If you don’t want kids at 18 don’t have them. If ya don’t want them at 38, then don’t. But our society and media will have you believe the latter is much much better.
Teenage pregnancies are always always always reported on as a bad thing in our media.
“If you wait for the perfect time with the perfect guy you’ll end up with no kids”. Rubbish and scaremongering. I’m 28, just finishing up my PhD and met the perfect guy, we plan to have kids at 30-35 also where I will be in a position to support them with a partner at my side and adequate money to provide for them. If I’d had children at 18 I’d have no qualifications bar something from my local IT and a child that has no father or stable family home.
Teenage pregnancies are generally a bad thing as they trap these women into the cycle I outlined above – no money, no home, need to rely on the government to provide for them and it is very difficult for them to get out of that trap and into university. Your comment is completely ridiculous. You clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
Additionally, having kids at 18 would’ve meant I would be unable to fulfil my academic potential and contribute fully to society as I plan to do once I complete my doctorate. Women are not baby making machines, it is possible to have a good job and then have children with someone you love and this is something we should aspire to rather than persuading children to have kids when they are not mentally or financially equip to be parents. Many of my friends are recently married/buying homes and will be planning to have kids in their early 30′s. These kids will be brought up in stable homes, with well educated parents who have done all they want to do in their twenties and want to parent.
Nobody said that you should have kids at 18, only that, from a biological point of view, 18 is around about a woman’s optimal fertility age. The biological clock does keep on ticking down from then. I know many women who have left their child-bearing until later, me included. Sadly, for some of them, the clock ticked faster so they either had fewer children than they’d hoped, had no children, or needed IVF. The point is, having fewer kids is better for the Earth, from a sustainability perspective.
Why do people even bother to have children at all if all they’re going to do is fob them off on a child minder? Said children will not grow up with their parents morals and mores, they’ll grow up with those of the child minder. Shame, isn’t it? Why can’t our society adjust, economically, so that parents are able to spend more time with their children?
€680 per month for child care PER CHILD! Because you have to work to be able to pay the mortgage. That is what makes women think twice about how many children they’ll have, not cockiness. But I’m guessing you’ve been spurned by women a fair few times so that would explain the chip on your shoulder
Nope actually I still stand by my comment. I came from a huge family and all my sibling and me myself have kids and the mothers work and have a happy life. The only ones who don’t want them are the ignorant to the fact people.
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