THE CSO TODAY released the latest instalment of Ireland’s vital statistics – the number and breakdown of births, deaths and marriages across the country.

Yesterday we learnt that Ireland had the highest birth rate in the EU in 2009, but the CSO statistics are more recent – relating to the third quarter of 2010. Here TheJournal.ie picks out some of the key numbers that make up the country.

• 19,171 – the total number of registered births
• 4,483 more babies born in the third quarter of 2010 against the same period in 2005 – a 30.5 per cent increase
• 34 per cent of children nationwide born to unmarried parents
• 16 per cent of children born nationwide to parents giving different addresses
• 58 per cent of children born to unmarried parents in Limerick city – the highest in the country
• 29.4 years – the average age of mothers having their first children, who were 40.5 per cent of the total
• 1.3 – the percentage of mothers who already had five or more children
• 77 per cent of people aged 65 or more at the time of their death
• 31 per cent of all deaths caused by cancer
• 35 per cent of deaths caused by everything else, excluding circulatory problems
• 2.4 – the infant mortality rate in Dublin*
• 14.2 – the infant mortality rate in Waterford city
• 6,517 – the total number of registered deaths

All statistics refer to the period between July and September 2010. * The infant mortality rate refers to the number of deaths of infants aged under one year per 1,000 live births.

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