Ireland sees continuing decrease in number of births
The number of babies being born in Ireland is continuing to decline, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The CSO data shows there were just over 67,000 live births in 2014.
That marks a drop of 10.5% since 2010 and 2.4% since 2013.
The figures also show that more than a third, 36.2%, of all births were outside marriage or civil partnership in 2014, while the average age of mothers continues to rise to stand at 32.4 years in 2014.
The 2014 vital statistics report also shows there were 24 sets of triplets and two set of quadruplets born that year.
Carol Anne Hennessy, a statistician from the CSO, said: "There were 67,295 live births in Ireland in 2014 with 34,681 males and 32,614 females.
"However, the 2014 total is 8.6% higher than 10 years previously (2004) when there were 61,972 live births."
There were 29,252 deaths in Ireland in 2014, a decrease of 252 on the 2013 figure.
Ms Hennessy said: "The natural increase (births minus deaths) in 2014 was 38,043, a decrease of almost 3.6% on the 2013 figure.
"The natural increase 10 years previously in 2004 was 33,307, almost 12.5% less than the 2014 figure."
