A RECORD NUMBER of babies were born to women aged 45 and over in 2023.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today published its Vital Statistics Annual Report for 2023.

It provides information on the births, deaths, and stillbirths that occur each year in Ireland.

CSO CSO

It found that in 2023, there was a record number of 408 babies born to women aged 45 and over – an increase of around 81%, or 182 births,  on the figure a decade previous in 2013.

There was also a 25% increase in births to mothers aged 40 and over between 2013 (4,004) and 2023 (4,993).

Meanwhile, the CSO found that the average age at which mothers give birth in Ireland continues to increase.

In 1973, 29 was the average age of a mother giving birth, while in 1993 it stood at 29.8 years.

In 2013, this stood at 32.2 years and rose again in 2023 to 33.2 years.

Elsewhere, there were 43 fewer births in 2023 compared with 2022, down 0.1%.

But over the last decade, the number of births has fallen by 14,428 when compared with 2013 figures, down 21%.

The CSO compared the birth rate in 2023 to that of 1973, 50 years ago.

In 2023, the birth rate stood at 10.3 births per 1,000 of population, while  50 years ago in 1973, it stood at 22.4 per 1,000 population.

The CSO data also found that fertility rate is below the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, excluding migration.

In 2023, the fertility rare for Ireland was 1.5, which is below the replacement level of 2.1

Meanwhile, there were 35,649 deaths in Ireland in 2023, of which 18,629 were males and 17,020 were females, an overall increase of 20.8% in all deaths in Ireland since 2013.

In 2023, the annual death rate was 6.7 per 1,000 of population, down from 2022 when the figure stood at 6.9.

There is a long-term reduction in the death rate in Ireland, which stood at 6.4 deaths per 1,000 of population in 2013, 9.0 deaths per 1,000 of population in 1993, and 11.2 deaths per 1,000 of population in 1973.

In 2023, the most frequent age of death for males was 83 years (3.5%), while for females it was 88 years (3.9%).

Neoplasms, which can be benign or malignant cancerous growths, accounted for the largest number of deaths in 2023 at 10,480.

This was followed by deaths due to diseases of the circulatory system at 9,784 and 4,124 deaths from diseases of the respiratory system.

Deaths due to accidents, suicide, and other external causes accounted for a further 1,809 or 5.1% of all deaths in 2023.

The CSO also found that between 2013 and 2023, there was a 79.3% increase in the number of dementia-related deaths.

In 2023, dementia collectively accounted for 5.9% of all deaths.

There were also a total of 682 deaths due to COVID-19 in 2023, down 58.2% from 2022, when the number of deaths stood at 1,633.

In terms of where people died in 2023, there were 14,880 deaths (41.7%) that occurred in general and orthopaedic hospitals, 8,725 (24.5%) of deaths occurred at home, and 6,089 (17.1%) deaths occurred in nursing homes.