The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has reported a significant increase of 21.5% over a decade in the number of babies born to women aged 40 and above. The CSO’s data, released this Thursday, shows a rise from 4,007 in 2012 to 5,868 in 2022 for this age group. On the other hand, the number of births among women below 20 fell sharply by 51.7% during the same timespan, dropping from 1,616 to 781.
The figures for 2022 reveal that out of all the births, 781 were accounted for by teenage mothers, and a minuscule 0.7% was by mothers aged 45 and above. 40.3% of all the births, amounting to 21,943, were to first-time mothers.
The recent years have seen a trend towards older motherhood, consequentially raising the average maternal age at birth to 33.2 years. This illustrates a steady shift from 30 and 50 years ago, when the average mother’s age at the time of childbirth was 29.7 and 29.1 years, respectively, in 1992 and 1972. Despite the recent increase, there was a marginal dip in the average age from 33.3 years in 2021 to 33.2 years in 2022.
The yearly birth rate has also declined, reaching 10.5 per 1,000 of the population in 2022, a drop from 15.6 per 1,000 in 2012. The total number of newborns in 2022 was 54,483, witnessing a decrease of 10.1% compared to 2021.
In 2022, Waterford City recorded the highest birth rate at 12.4 per 1,000 of the population, while Galway City had the lowest with 8.4 per 1,000.
In 2022, Ireland recorded a total of 35,804 fatalities, mirroring the death rate of 6.9 per 1,000 people as in the previous year, 2021. A decade prior in 2012, the death rate was slightly lower at 6.4 per 1,000 individuals.
The most common age of death for men in this year was 84, comprising 3.5% of all deaths, whereas for women it was slightly higher at 88, making up 4.0% of the total.
Just over two-thirds of the fatalities in 2022 were caused mainly by abnormal tissue growths known as neoplasms (10,361 cases), cardiovascular diseases (9,930 cases) and respiratory conditions (3,874 cases).
Out of the 10,361 deaths attributed to neoplasms, 19% or 1,963 cases were caused specifically by lung and bronchus cancers.
Meanwhile, nearly 40% of the 3,874 respiratory-related deaths, totalling to 1,545, were a result of other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases.