THE NUMBER of deaths in the Republic in 2005 was the lowest recorded "in the history of the State" and the birth rate among women in their 20s that year was "the lowest ever recorded", according to a new report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The CSO attributes the drop in deaths to people's increasing life spans and the relatively high proportion of young people living here, while the lower birth rate among women in their 20s is because they are leaving childbearing until later.
In all, 28,260 people died in the State in 2005, a drop of 405 on the previous year.
The report indicates a significant reduction in death rates among older people. For example, the death rate for people aged between 65 and 74 years has fallen from 32 deaths per 1,000 people in 1995 to 20 deaths per 1,000 in 2005. Over three quarters of the deaths in 2005 were from diseases of the circulatory system, including heart disease and stroke, from cancer, or from diseases of the respiratory system, such as pneumonia. There were 10,149 deaths due to circulatory diseases, 7,749 deaths due to cancer and 4,048 due to respiratory diseases.
Men accounted for 55 per cent of deaths due to heart attack, while women accounted for 56 per cent of stroke deaths.
The most common types of cancer deaths among men were cancers of the lung and larynx, killing 990 men, and prostate cancer, which killed 548 men. In women the most common causes of cancer deaths were breast cancer, killing 696 women, and cancers of the lung and larynx, which claimed 662 lives.
Meanwhile, the report indicates that there were 61,372 births recorded in the Republic in 2005, with births to teenagers in decline and births to older women continuing to rise. The birth rate among women aged 15 to 19 years was the lowest since 1996, while the rate for women aged 35 to 39 years was the highest since 1982. Crucially, the birth rate for women in their 20s was the lowest ever recorded.
More children were born to women over 40 years than to women under 20 in 2005. Some 2,566 babies were born to women over 40 years, compared to 2,406 to women who were under 20.
In all some 13,320 babies were born to women aged 35-39 years and 2,483 were born to women aged 40-44 years. A further 83 were born to women aged 45 years and over.
The report says that in 1975, mothers under 30 accounted for 61.7 per cent of births. The proportion declined to 40.8 per cent in 2004 and to 38.8 per cent in 2005.
Almost one third of births in 2005 were outside marriage. The highest percentage of births outside marriage occurred in Limerick, while the county with the lowest percentage was Roscommon.
Mothers were on average also the youngest in Limerick city, which also had the highest rate for infant mortality and stillbirths.
The figures are contained in the CSO's Report on Vital Statistics 2005, prepared for the Department of Health. Some of the statistics have been released in previous CSO publications, but this publication was its first complete report on births, deaths and stillbirths for 2005.