Vital Statistics First Quarter 2024

Key Findings

• The number of registered births decreased by 486 or 3.5% in Quarter 1 (Q1) 2024 to 13,482 births. There were 9,564 deaths registered in the same period, which was 641 fewer deaths (6.3%) when compared with the same period in 2023. Care should be taken when interpreting these figures. (See Statistician's Comment below for more detail).

• In Q1 2024 the Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) for Ireland was 1.5 which is below the replacement level of 2.1. Ten years ago, the TPFR in Q1 2014 stood at 2.0.

• The average age of all mothers in Q1 2024 was 33.3 years, up slightly from the 33.2 years recorded in Q1 2023.

• Just over two in five (40.7%) births registered were outside marriage/civil partnership in Q1 2024.

• The natural increase (i.e. births minus deaths) grew by 4.1% in Q1 2024 compared with the same period in 2023.

• While deaths overall decreased by 6.3%, there was a 17.6% increase in influenza deaths in Q1 2024 in comparison with Q1 2023 (108 compared with 127).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (23 August 2024) released the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 (Q1) 2024 Release.

Commenting on the release, Seán O'Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said:

"The CSO's Vital Statistics publication provides a snapshot of the life events (births, deaths and marriages) which were registered in January, February and March (Q1) 2024. Our Data chapter provides access to the open data available in our PxStat tables.

Registration vs Occurrence

Quarterly Vital Statistics reports provide figures on the number of births and deaths registered in the relevant quarter. Not all life events which are registered in a quarter occur in that particular quarter. For instance, of the 13,482 births which were registered in Q1 2024, 99.1% occurred in either Q1 2024 or Q4 2023. For deaths (9,564), only 90.9% of the deaths registered in Q1 2024 occurred in either Q1 2024 or Q4 2023.

Crude Birth and Death Rates

There were 13,482 births registered in Q1 2024, a decrease of 3.5% when compared with Q1 2023 registrations. This represented a birth rate of 10.2 per 1,000 population compared with 10 years earlier when the annual birth rate was 15.4 per 1,000 population in Q1 2014.

There were 9,564 deaths registered in Ireland in Q1 2024, which equated to a death rate of 7.2 per 1,000 population compared with 7.1 per 1,000 population in Q1 2014.

Fertility

The Total Period Fertility Rate (TPFR) is derived from the age-specific fertility rates in the current year. It represents the projected number of children a woman would have if she experienced current age-specific fertility rates while progressing from age 15-49 years. A value of 2.1 is generally considered to be the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.

In Q1 2024 the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5 which was below replacement level. In Q1 2014 the TPFR stood at 2.0.

Age of Mothers

The average age of a mother giving birth was 33.3 years for Q1 2024, up slightly from the 33.2 years recorded in Q1 2023.

In Q1 2014, this figure was 32.3 years.

Deaths

There were 9,564 registered deaths in Ireland in Q1 2024, of which 4,788 were males and 4,776 were females.

Just under four out of every ten deaths (3,789) registered in Q1 2024 were for those aged 85 years and older. Of these 3,789 registered deaths, nearly 60% (2,260) were females, while the remaining 1,529 were male.

Those aged 0 to 34 years accounted for 143 of the 9,564 registered deaths in Q1 2024 (1.5%). Of these deaths, more than 60% were male (87), while the remaining 56 were female.

Infant Deaths

The death of a live-born infant under the age of one is categorised as an infant death. There were 45 infant deaths registered in Q1 2024 giving an infant mortality rate of 3.3 deaths per 1,000 live births. Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under four weeks. There were 35 neonatal deaths registered in Q1 2024. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.6 in Q1 2024. In Q1 2014 this was 3.2.

Causes of Death

More than half of registered deaths in Q1 2024 were from either malignant neoplasms (2,698 or 28.2%) or diseases of the circulatory system (2,597 or 27.2%).

Deaths due to accidents, suicide and other external causes accounted for a further 268 or 2.8% of death registrations. Of these 268 deaths, 44 or 16.4% were classed as intentional self-harm. It should be noted that all deaths due to external causes are reported to the Coroner's Office for further investigation, therefore the number of registrations for any given period will likely underrepresent the number of deaths which have occurred due to accidents, suicide, or other external causes of mortality. Futhermore, late registered deaths (registered in 2024 but occurred before 2023) are not included in these overall figures but will be included in a supplementary table as part of the 2024 yearly summary.

For those aged under 55 years, the three most common causes of death were malignant neoplasms (217), diseases of the circulatory system (96), and external causes of injury and poisoning (85). These three groupings accounted for 66.6% of deaths for this age group.

For those aged 55 years and over, diseases of the circulatory system (2,501), malignant neoplasms (2,481), and diseases of the respiratory system (1,300) were the three most common causes of death accounting for seven out of ten deaths.

There was a 20.7% increase in accidental falls between Q1 2023 and Q1 2024, rising from 58 to 70. Of those 70 registered deaths, nearly half (48.6%) happened to those aged 85 years and over.

Deaths due to COVID-19 decreased by 42.3% from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024 (307 vs 177), while deaths due to Influenza rose from 108 to 127 (17.6%).

Marriages

There were 3,136 marriages registered in Q1 2024 (down from 3,418 in Q1 2023), of which 101 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in Q1 2024 was 2.4 marriages per 1,000 population.

Natural Increase

Looking at births and deaths together allows the calculation of the natural increase (births minus deaths). It provides a snapshot of how a population is evolving. Note the natural increase does not take account of migration (inward or outward). Nationally, the natural increase for Q1 2024 stood at 3,918 (births less deaths). This is an increase of 4.1% compared with Q1 2023 and a decrease of 59.1% compared with Q1 2014."

Editor's Note

Important Notice: Information on occurrence of births and deaths is only available for these life events which have been registered. Births are more likely to be registered in a timelier manner than deaths due to variations in reporting time requirements to the General Registers Office (GRO).

As such, birth and death occurrence statistics in this publication are provisional and subject to further revision as births and deaths continue to be registered. Statistics in more recent quarters are more likely to be subject to revision as more life events are registered.

There is an Information Note on the CSO's website to clarify the availability of death notifications arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also explains the timing of the release of these statistics as death notifications in Ireland can be registered up to three months after the date of death.

An Information Note is also available outlining how the CSO assigns COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death.

From Q1 2023, the Vital Statistics quarterly publications provide an additional breakdown of registered births and deaths by occurrence by quarter. Prior to Q1 2023, all data was classified by quarter of registration. Please see Vital Statistics Q1 2024 Summary Results below.

Please note - all other statistics, bar those presented in the Vital Statistics Quarter 1 2024 Summary Results Table, are based off registration data and not occurrence data.