One-Third Of Births Come Outside Of Wedlock

The new 'Vital Statistics' report for the first quarter of 2007 from the Central Statistics Office reveal that just over one-third of all births in Ireland were outside marriage and that over two in five (42.8%) births were to first time mothers.

The average age of mothers having their first child was 28.9 years, an increase of almost half-a-year on the figure reported a year earlier.

The average age for all mothers was 31.1 years, an increase of 0.2 years on 2006.

The average age at which women have their first child has risen by almost 2 years in the last decade and by almost 4 years in the last three decades.

In 1998 the average age of first-time mothers was 27.1 years, 1.8 years less than the most recent figure. In 1978 the average age of first-time mothers was only 25.0 years, 3.9 years less than the most recent figure.

There were a total of 7,207 first-time births the first quarter of 2007, which included 1,068 first-time births to women over 35 and 524 first-time births to teenagers.

The oldest first-time mothers were in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown with an average age of 30.9 years at first birth. The youngest first-time mothers were in Limerick City, with an average age of 25.7 years.

There were 17,473 births registered in the first quarter which equates to a birth rate of 16.5 per 1,000 people.

The report also shows that 7,910 deaths were registered, indicating a death rate of 7.5 per 1,000 population.

Almost 4 in every 5 deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (37%), cancer (26%), or diseases of the respiratory system (15%).