Ireland
fertility rate stands at 2.1 babies per woman which is exactly the number
needed to replace the current population level and is 
the highest in the EU.
A new
report [1] from the ESRI looks at Irish birth in 2009. It also finds that a quarter
of children were born to non-nationals. A third of births took place outside
marriage.
The Irish
fertility rate has been climbing in recent years partly due to the number of
women who have reached their child-bearing years together and because of
immigration, especially from Eastern Europe.
France has
the second highest fertility rate in the EU at 2.0, while Sweden and the UK
stand at 1.9 each. The lowest fertility rate in the EU is 2009 was Hungary’s,
Portugal’s and Latvia’s at 1.3.
Austria,
Germany, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain were all tied on
1.4.
In the year
examined, there were 76,021 births in Ireland, with 50,208 of these being to
married mothers.
Of the
remainder, 24,477 were never married, 101 were widowed, 698 were separated, and
453 were divorced. Eighty-four did not give their marital status.
The report
also lists the nationality of the father, but in 18,083 cases it was not listed
on the birth cert because if a child’s mother is unmarried there is no need to
provide the nationality of the father.
One in ten
birth certificates in Ireland does not even show the father’s name according to
a Law Reform Commission report.
Of the
children born in 2009, 18,140 were to non-nationals. Of these, 7,816 were from EU countries in Eastern
Europe, 3,046 were Asian and 2,604 were African.