Number of births in Ireland fell 10% between 2021 and 2022 — latest figures
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The number of births in Ireland fell by 10% in 2022 compared to the previous year, according to new figures.
That is just one of a raft of findings on births and deaths included in the , published on Thursday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
According to the report, there were 54,483 babies born in Ireland in 2022, a decrease of 6,092 compared to 2021.
This represented an annual birth rate of 10.5 per 1,000 people in the population. Ten years earlier, in 2012, the annual birth rate was 15.6 per 1,000 people.
A TPFR value of 2.1 is generally considered to be the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.
Over the same decade, the total period fertility rate (TPFR), derived from the age-specific fertility rates in a given year, decreased from 2.0 in 2012 to 1.5 in 2022. Half a century ago, in 1972, the TPFR was 3.9.
The CSO report also states that, in 2022, the average age of mothers giving birth was 33.2 years. In 1992 and 1972, the average age was 29.7 years and 29.1 years, respectively.
Births to women aged 40 or over increased by 21.5% between 2012 and 2022, from 4,007 to 5,868.
The number of births to women under the age of 20 decreased by 51.7%—from 1,616 to 781—during the same period.
There were 781 babies born to teenagers in 2022 and 366 babies born to mothers aged 45 years and over.
Number of births in Ireland fell by 10.1% to 54,483, while deaths rose by 2.8% to 35,804 when compared with 2021https://t.co/BCnCPT7fnO#CSOIreland #Ireland #VitalStatistics #VitalStats #Births #Deaths #Marriages #IrishBabiesNames #BoysNames #GirlsNames #BabyNames pic.twitter.com/WnRTnQFeXU
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) October 31, 2024
Births to mothers of Irish nationality accounted for roughly three-quarters (75.6%) of all births in 2022. The previous year, this percentage share was slightly higher at 77.7%.
However, the 2022 figure is largely unchanged from the when the share stood at 75.9%, in 2012.
In terms of deaths, there were 35,804 deaths in Ireland in 2022: 18,553 were males, and 17,251 were females. This equates to an annual death rate of 6.9 per 1,000 people in the population, unchanged from the year before.
In 2022, the most frequent age at death for males was 84 years, while for females, it was 88 years.
Neoplasms, or abnormal tissue growths, accounted for the largest number of deaths in 2022 at 10,361. Diseases of the circulatory system accounted for 9,930 deaths, while diseases of the respiratory system accounted for 3,874 deaths.
Deaths due to accidents, suicide, and other external causes accounted for a further 1,670 deaths—4.7% of all deaths recorded in 2022.
Cancers of the bronchus and lungs accounted for 1,963 deaths in 2022. Cancers of the breast accounted for 792 deaths, while cancers of the pancreas and cancers of the prostate accounted for 630 and 616 deaths, respectively.
Between 2012 and 2022, there was a 109% increase in the number of dementia-related deaths. In 2022, dementia collectively accounted for 5.5% of all deaths.
A total of 1,632 deaths occurred due to covid-19 in 2022, down 48.7% from 2021, when the number of deaths stood at 3,178.