BIRTH, MARRIAGE and death are key staging posts in the cycle of life. How long people live and how many children women bear — and at what age — are often determined by the general health and wealth of a nation, and by its social and cultural values. The job of the Central Statistics Office is to record the State’s vital statistics, and to analyse the resulting data. The exercise leaves the public better informed, and ensures politicians are better equipped to make policy. The CSO’s recent publication, the Vital Statistics report for 2009, reveals some surprising facts – not least Ireland’s high birth rate.
Irish women are the most fertile in the EU. In 2009, when 75,554 babies were born, this was the highest number in over a century, and a 40 per cent increase in births in a decade. The Irish birth-rate figure, where the average number of children per woman is 2.1, is significant. As the CSO has pointed out, that is the replacement rate — or the number of births necessary to maintain current population levels. Other European countries have sought to check their falling, and ageing, populations by offering financial incentives to boost birth rates. Given Ireland’s expanding population, that has not yet been necessary.
The report also highlights some other significant developments and trends. Irish women are choosing to have their babies later in life. Before 1993, women in the 25 to 29 age category accounted for most births. By 2009, a majority of births were in the 30 to 34 year age group. The move by women to delay pregnancy has come in parallel with an increase in average marriage age. In 1977, the average age of the groom entering marriage was 26, and the bride 24. However, by 2009, the figure for the groom had increased to 34, and that of the bride to 32. Another major change over past decades has been the dramatic rise in the number of births outside marriage. Close on half a century ago, the figure for non-marital births was under 2 per cent. By 2009, the figure accounted for one-third of all births.
We have seen, as this CSO report shows, major shifts in social attitudes to aspects of family life. Nevertheless it is surprising – given so much of this change has happened so quickly – that it has prompted such little public debate and discussion. Births, marriages and deaths – Ireland’s vital statistics – are clearly and comprehensively set out in the CSO report. Their full implications deserve a more vigorous debate by the public and policymakers than they have so far received.