Natural increase in population falls to lowest level for five years

Natural increase in population falls to lowest level for five years
The natural increase in the country's population fell to its lowest quarterly level in five years.

The natural increase in population has fallen to its lowest quarterly level for five years, new vital statistics for the first quarter of 2020 show.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) data shows a fall in the number of registered births and a slight increase in registered deaths between January and March this year, compared to the same period last year.

The data, however, does not include any deaths from Covid-19.

The first Covid death, the CSO confirmed, was registered in the first week of April, suggesting the impact of the pandemic will not be seen until the second quarterly figures are published.

In the first three months of this year, 8,674 deaths and 14,371 births were registered, yielding a natural increase in population of 5,697 people - the lowest natural increase in any quarter over the past five years.

The number of births is down 9% on the same quarter last year although the CSO pointed out that a time-lag in the registration of births, due to Covid-19 restrictions and before online registration went live, may impact on the first quarter figures for 2020.

The highest number of births was seen in Dublin City (1,585 or 11% of all births) followed by Cork County (1,270 or 9% of all births), while County Leitrim had the lowest number of births in the first quarter at just under 100, or less than 1% of all births.

The majority (77%) of mothers identified as Irish, while 12% came from the European Union, 2% from the UK, and 9% identified as other nationalities.

First-time mothers were on average 31 years of age and three-quarters of all births were to first- and second-time mothers.

The CSO data also shows that 35 teenagers aged between 16 and 17 years became new mums, with one 17-year-old having a second child.

Number of deaths increased across all age groups 

There were 42 infant deaths between January and March, of which 31 occurred before the new-borns were four weeks old.

The infant and neonatal mortality rates at 2.9 and 2.2 per 1,000 live births respectively represents a falling trend since the beginning of 2018, when the infant mortality rate was 3.5 and the neonatal rate was 2.8 per 1,000 live births.

Across all age groups, the number of deaths was up 56 in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, with cancer and diseases of the circulatory system accounting for 58% of all deaths, followed by respiratory illnesses at 15%.

The cause of death, however, varied across age groups. Where cancer was the leading cause of death for people aged 35-74 years, heart disease and other diseases of the circulatory system was the biggest killer for people over the age of 75.

On the other hand, accidents, suicide, and other external causes of death accounted for most (41) of all deaths among 15 to 34-year-olds .

In total 72 suicides were recorded across all age groups between January and March.

Meanwhile, a total of 2,886 marriages were registered in the first quarter, of which 115 were same-sex nuptials.

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