Average age of mothers highest in Dún Laoghaire

The average age of mothers giving birth has risen again with the oldest in Dun Laoghaire and the youngest in Limerick and Waterford cities.

According to Central Statistics Office figures for the third quarter of 2007 released today, average national age of mothers was 31.1 years, an increase of 0.1 years on the same period in 2006.

The average age of mothers has risen steadily for the past 30 years. In 1978, the average age was 28.8, 2.3 years less than the most recent figure. In 1998 the average age of mothers was 30.1 years, 1 year less than today’s figure.

The oldest mothers giving birth were in Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown with an average age of 33.3 years. The youngest were in Limerick City and Waterford City, with an average age of 29.2 years, while the average in Monaghan was 29.6.

The age of mothers giving birth was also above average in Clare (32.3), Galway County (32.2), and in Leitrim (32).

In Cork County the average age of mothers giving birth is an above-average 32, while in the Cork city it was below average at 29.6 years.

The CSO data also shows that almost 60 per cent of births to women under 30 were outside marriage but half of these were to cohabiting couples.

There were 4,200 births to unmarried women under 30 in the third quarter, compared to 3,103 births to married women under 30.

There were 1,991 births to mothers under 30 where the parents were cohabiting, and 2,209 where the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not registered.

Less than 16 per cent of mothers over 30 were unmarried. There were 9,430 births to married women over 30 in the 3rd quarter of 2007, and only 1,816 births outside marriage to women over that age, according to the data.

Of the 1,816 births outside marriage to women over 30, the majority, 1,168, were to cohabiting couples.

Overall, more than one in six births registered in the 3rd quarter of 2007 were to cohabiting couples.

A total of 18,554 births were registered, and 3,161 (17 per cent) of these were to unmarried parents living at the same address. There were an additional 2,858 (15 per cent) births outside marriage where the parents had different addresses, or the father’s details were not

registered. There were 12,535 (68 per cent) births to married parents.

Today’s report also shows that 6,455 deaths were registered in the third quarter of 2007. Just 3/4 of these deaths were from either diseases of the circulatory system (35 per cent), cancer (30 per cent), or diseases of the respiratory system (11 per cent).

The figures are contained in the CSO’s Vital Statistics report for the third quarter of last year.