Over half the number of births in Limerick city were to unmarried mothers in the last quarter, according to the latest Vital Statistics report from the Central Statistics Office, released today.

The figures also show a decline in the marriage rate, and a rise in the percentage of children being born outside marriage to just under 36pc, a record high.

The report showed that 56pc of all births in Limerick city were to unmarried parents. Nearly a quarter of all births in Limerick city were to cohabiting parents.

In Cork city, 50pc of all births were to unmarried parents, with 25pc of children born to cohabiting parents.

The lowest percentage of births outside marriage was in Leitrim at 21.1pc.

In total, there were 6,929 births registered as outside marriage in quarter 1 of 2012, which amounted for 35.9pc of all births, an increase of two percent on the first quarter of 2011 and an increase of 2.1pc on quarter 1 2007.

Overall, there were 2,827 marriages registered during the first quarter, the equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 2.5 per 1,000 population. This represents a fall of 0.2 per thousand compared to the first quarter of last year, and a fall of 0.7 since the first quarter of 2007.

The figures showed that the overwhelming number of children born to mothers under 25 took place outside marriage.

Eighty one per cent of children born to mothers aged 20-24 were born outside marriage, while 51pc of children born to women aged 25-29 were born outside marriage. Meanwhile, 76pc of children born to women aged between 30-34 were born to married parents.

The average age of mothers at maternity outside of marriage, was 28.8 years. This ranged from 30.1 years in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown to 27.5 years in Donegal.

The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 2,827 equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 2.5 per 1,000 population, 0.2 below the corresponding quarter of 2011.

Meanwhile, figures from the CSO’s Migration and Diversity report, also published today, showed that just under 49pc of non-nationals were married, compared with 47pc of Irish adults who were married in 2011.

The rate of separated or divorced persons was higher amongst non-Irish nationals at 7.9pc in 2011 compared with 5.3pc for Irish nationals.

More than half of Chinese nationals aged 15 years and over in 2011 were single. On the other hand, Indian nationals were more likely to be married (82.4pc).

Latvians had the highest rate for separated or divorced persons (14.3pc) and much higher than the average rate for all non-Irish nationals (7.9pc).