Introduction: Ireland has witnessed some very dramatic social changes in the last decades and we see these strongly at work in the area of family life. We have witnessed a decline in the rate of marriage, a huge growth in the number of people who are divorced or separated, a decline in the fertility rate to below replacement level, a massive increase in the number of births outside marriage, and a steep decline in religious marriage ceremonies. What we see is a society where marriage is less common, where they break up more often, where a child is far more likely to be born outside marriage and often to grow up without a father, and where far fewer children are born overall.
The following tables set out the social trends graphically.
Number of people who have undergone divorce or separation
[1]
Source: Court Service [2].
Number of single parent families
[3]
Source: CSO [4].
Number of cohabiting couples
[5]
Source: CSO [6].
Percentage of births outside marriage
[7]
Number of Marriages
[8]
Source: CSO [9].
From 2016, it refers to opposite sex marriages only.
Marriage rate
[10]
Source: CSO [9].
Fertility rate
[11]
Source: CSO [12].
Note: 2.1 children per couple is replacement level.
Total births
[13]
Source: CSO [12].
Catholic marriage ceremonies
[14]
Percentage of Catholic ceremonies in marriages.
Source: CSO [9].
Number of abortions
[15]
Source: Department of Health [16].
Ireland liberalised its abortion law in January 2019 following the repeal of the 8th amendment the previous year’.
(Note: In 2021 4,577 abortions were notified as having taken place, but HSE data show GPs submitted claims for reimbursement in respect of 6,700 second consultations [17] for abortion care, under the primary care reimbursement scheme).