A record number of babies were born to women aged 45 and over in 2023, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The data shows that 408 babies were born to mothers over 45 last year, representing an 80.5% rise compared to 2013, reports RTE.
CSO statistician Sean O’Connor told RTÉ’s News at One that the average age of mothers giving birth in 2023 was 33.2 years, up from 32.2 a decade earlier.
“The highest number of babies born to women 45 and over was recorded in 2023 with 408 births. If we take a longer time period, looking back say 50 years to 1973, the average age of a mother giving birth was 29 years. So you can see how it has increased over the last 50 years,” he said, reports RTE.
He added that the number of births among women over 40 rose by more than 25%.
Ireland’s total period fertility rate for 2023 was recorded at 1.5 — below the population replacement rate of 2.1 — compared to 1.9 in 2013, reports RTE.
There were 43 fewer births in 2023 than in 2022, and over the past ten years, the number of births has dropped by more than 20% compared with 2013.
Mr O’Connor noted that the CSO continues to record a consistently low number of home births, with the vast majority taking place in hospitals, reports RTE.
In 2023, there were 35,649 deaths in Ireland — a 20.8% rise since 2013 — including a 24.5% increase in male deaths and a 17% rise among females.
A total of 312 people aged 100 and over died last year, comprising 61 men and 251 women, reports RTE.
Neoplasms, which include both benign and malignant cancerous growths, accounted for the highest number of deaths at 10,480. This was followed by 9,784 deaths from circulatory diseases and 4,124 deaths from respiratory illnesses.
Mr O’Connor added that Ireland’s death rate has continued to decline steadily over the last 30 to 50 years, reports RTE.
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