The number of births recovered significantly in the third quarter of last year, and were higher even than 2019 levels, according to the latest Vital Statistics Report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Commenting on the release, Gerard Doolan, Statistician, said: “The number of births has increased by 2,270 (or 15.7%) from the same quarter in the previous year, up from 14,477 in Q3 2020 to 16,747 in 2021”.
The 2019, 3rd quarter figure was 15,379, which itself was a decrease from 15,428 in 2018.
In addition, the average age of mothers was 33.2 in Q3 2021, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2020, while 10 years ago it was 32.0 years for the same period.
More than two in five (42.6%) of all births were outside of marriage, compared to the same quarter a year earlier when 39.3% of births were to mothers outside of marriage. Ten years ago, in Q3 2011, this proportion was one in three (34.0%) of all births.
