Ireland Has Highest Birth Rate Since 1991

This is a 7% increase on the 2006 fertility rate of 1.9 children.

These figures are contained in the CSO's Vital Statistics, Fourth Quarter and Yearly Summary report 2007.

The fertility rate increased across all child-bearing age groups in 2007, but the most dramatic increases were among women in their thirties.

There was an 8% annual increase in fertility among women aged 30 to 34, and an 11% annual increase in fertility among women aged 35 to 39.

There were 39,879 births to women in their thirties, meaning that over 1 in 9 women in their thirties had babies in 2007.

Women in their twenties had 25,199 babies, meaning that just over 1 in 15 women in their twenties had babies last year.

The total number of births in 2007 was 70,620, an increase of 6,383 on the 2006 figure. This was the highest number of births since 1982.

Over two in five (42%) births in 2007 were to first time mothers.

Almost 33% of births in 2007 were outside marriage. Just over half of all births outside marriage were to cohabiting parents.

The new survey also reports that there were 28,050 deaths in 2007, a rate of 6.5 deaths per 1,000 people.

Over three in every four deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (35%), cancer (28%), or diseases of the respiratory system (13%).

There were 9,931 deaths due to circulatory diseases (which include heart disease and stroke) 7,844 deaths due to cancer, and 3,541 due to respiratory diseases.

The number of suicides was 460, or 10.6 per 100,000 population. Over 4 in every 5 suicides were male.

There were 221 deaths of infants aged less than 1 year in 2007, or 3.1 deaths for every 1,000 births.

The infant death rate has halved in the last decade, as in 1998 there were 6.2 infant deaths for every 1,000 births.

There were 22,544 marriages registered in 2007, 703 more than in 2006.

The number of divorces granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court was 3,684.