The number of births increased by 2,236 or 16.1% in Quarter 1 2022 while there were 29 fewer deaths (0.3%) when compared with the same period in 2021.

The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) in Q1 was 52.3% ahead of the same quarter a year earlier.

There were 8,254 male births and 7,877 female births in Q1. The 16,131 births represent an annual birth rate of 12.9 per thousand population.

Births to teenage mothers increased from 179 in Q1 2021 to 194 in Q1 2022.

More than two in five of all births were outside of marriage/civil partnership, a slight increase on a year earlier.

In Association with

In Q1 2022, there were 9,090 births registered as within marriage/civil partnership and 7,040 births registered as outside marriage/civil partnership.

The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Waterford City at 59.4% and the lowest was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown with 27.3%.

The average age of mothers was 33.3 in Q1 2022, which is an increase of 0.2 years from that reported in the same quarter in 2021. According to the CSO, ten years ago the average age was 31.8.

The average age of first time mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 30.1, while the average age of all mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 31.2 years.

There were 9,540 deaths registered in Q1. Of these 4,960 were male and 4,580 were female. The total is 0.3% less than the corresponding quarter of 2021.

The natural increase in the population for Q1 was 6,600. This represents a rate of 5.3 per 1,000 population, 1.8 more than Quarter 1 2021.

The Republic of Ireland's most recent population estimate was 5,011,460 in August 2021.