There were 65,909 babies born in Ireland last year, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
Last year, over a third (36.4 per cent) or 23,990 births in 2015 were outside marriage. Of these, 59.5 per cent were to cohabiting parents.
In 2015 there were 41,919 (63.6 per cent) of births registered as within marriage and of these, 15 were within civil partnerships.
The highest percentage of births outside marriage/civil partnership was in Limerick city at 55.7 per cent.
The lowest was in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown with 24 per cent.
Just over 53 per cent of births outside marriage/civil partnership were to mothers under 30.
Over a third 36.4 per cent of births in 2015 were outside marriage. Of these, 59.5 per cent of the births were to cohabiting parents.
The highest number of births registered was in Dublin city with 7,557 (11.5 per cent of total live births in the country) followed by Cork county with 6,057 (9.2 per cent) registered births.
Leitrim had the lowest number with 414 (0.6 per cent) registered births in 2015.
The same pattern was reflected in 2014 when Dublin city accounted for 7,828 or 11.6 per cent of births followed by Cork county with 6,009 (8.9 per cent). Leitrim had the lowest number, 403 births (or 0.6 per cent), registered in 2014.
There were 1,300 more boys than girls delivered, while last year’s total figure marks a drop of more than 1,500 births on 2014.
Last year saw a decline in the number of teenage pregnancies - which dropped from 1,253 in 2014 to 1,187 in 2015. Of these, 42 were aged under 16.
The average age at giving birth was 32.5 years last year, while the average age of first time mothers was 30.7 years, up 0.2 years from 2014.
Deaths
CSO statistics for 2015 show there were 29,952 deaths registered last year.
The leading cause of death varied widely by age group. Among young adults aged 15 to 44, external causes of death including accidents, suicide and other ranked first (594 deaths).
Among individuals aged 45-74, cancers were the leading cause, while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the heart and arteries.
The figures include 205 infant deaths - meaning an infant mortality rate of 3.1 deaths per 1,000 live births.
There were 1,439 deaths due to accidents, suicides and other external causes. Accidents accounted for 889 (61.8 per cent) of these deaths while suicides accounted for 451 (31.3 per cent).
Of these 1,439 deaths, 7 out of 10 (70.9 per cent ) were male.
Marriages
Some 22,116 marriages were registered in 2015; 91 of which were same-sex marriages.
This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 4.8 per 1,000 population, the same rate as in 2014.
The number of civil partnerships registered in 2015 was 376, which was 16 less than in 2014.
The figures for the number of divorces last year have not been made available yet.