Almost four in ten births (37.8 per cent) in 2018 were registered as outside of marriage, according to the latest official figures.

A yearly summary of births and deaths published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows the rate is at its highest ever.

The figures also showed a significant ‘marriage gap’ depending on what part of the country a baby was born. Well over half (54.5 per cent) of all births in Limerick were to unmarried mothers, compared to less than a quarter (23.8 per cent) in the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area of south Dublin.

Overall, there was a declining birth rate. There were 61,016 births registered in 2018, a decrease of 1,037 on 2017.  The 2018 total is 19.4% lower than in 2008 when 75,724 births were registered.

The total period fertility rate in 2018 was 1.8 which is below replacement level of 2.1.