The Irish 'fertile and growing in numbers'
Ireland is the most fertile country in the EU with each woman having an average of nearly two babies, according to figures out today.
The state also had the fastest-growing population in the bloc last year after Cyprus, according to a Eurostat demographics study.
The EU statistics think-tank said the total number of people in the state in 2004 jumped by 20% compared with 25.4% in Cyprus and 16.2% in Spain.
The highest fertility rates were found in Ireland with each woman having 1.99 children during her lifetime compared with 1.90 for France and 1.80 for Finland.
The lowest EU fertility rates were found in Slovenia (1.22), followed by the Czech Republic and Poland (both 1.23), Latvia (1.24) and Slovakia (1.25).
The overall rate across the EU’s 25 states increased from 1.48 in 2003 to 1.50 in 2004 while the corresponding rate for the US in 2004 was 2.07.
General population fell by 6% in Lithuania, 5.5% in Latvia and 3% in Estonia.
The population of the EU increased by 2.3 million or 0.5% to 459.5 million compared with a 0.9 rise in the US to 294.4 million.
In line with population trends, Cyprus recorded 21.3‰ migration with Spain at 14.3‰ and Ireland at 11.4‰.
In the EU, 31.6% of the total live births took place outside marriage in 2004. Among the Member States,
The highest share of births outside marriage were found in Estonia (57.8% in 2003), Sweden (55.4%), Denmark (45.4%), Latvia (45.3%), France (45.2% in 2003), Slovenia (43.5%) and the United Kingdom (42.3%).
Cyprus (3.3%), Greece (4.9%), Italy (14.9%) and Poland (17.2%) recorded the lowest shares.
