THE LATEST STATS from the Central Statistics Office make for some interesting reading.
No, really…
The black & white data compiled by the folks in Swords tells us there were 605 fewer births between April and June this year, compared to the same period last year.
Less of us died in the three month period too… There were 7,197 deaths recorded in the second quarter of 2014 — a drop of 447 on the same period 12 months previously.
And while there was only a marginal increase in the number of marriages in the period, there was also a significant-enough rise in civil partnerships: 91 — 19 more than in 2013.
Almost 6,000 births were registered outside marriage/civil partnership over the three months — accounting for over a third of all births.
In its breakdown of those figures, the CSO tells us:
“The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Limerick City at 58.2% and the lowest was in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with 23.2%.
In the same quarter in 2013, there were 5,824 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership accounting for 34% of all births.
Ten years ago — in the second quarter of 2004, 31.4 per cent of all births were registered outside marriage.
As you might imagine, the highest number of births registered was in Dublin City (1,846), followed by Cork county (1,500).
Leitrim had the lowest number — at 102 registered births over the three months. That’s even down on the same time last year, when the figure was 128.
Finally, the average age of first time mothers was 30.5 years, up just over three months on the same time last year.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say