Boom in births to unmarried parents, says CSO

LIMERICK CITY has the highest percentage of births outside marriage at 55%, the latest statistics published by the Central Statistics Office show.

Figures also show that nine of the 650 teenagers who had babies over the three-month period of 2003 surveyed were aged 15 and under.

Over 30% (5,000) of all registered births in the State within the timeframe were outside marriage, compared to 21% in the same period in 1994.

And over 27% of all births outside marriage were to women aged 30 and over.

A CSO statistician said there was no reason she could find to explain the high rate of births outside marriage in Limerick City. "Looking at population make-up, there is no reason why it is higher than anywhere else," she said.

A total of 15,909 births were registered over the timeframe up 300 on the same period in 2002 and are the highest they have been in the last decade with a birth rate of 16 per 1,000 population, an actual increase of 18%.

During the same quarter in 1994 a total of 12,171 births were registered when the birth rate was 13.6 per 1,000 of the population.

There were 8,000 marriages registered in the third quarter of 2003, a rise of 100 on the same period in 2002 and corresponds to a rate of eight per 1,000 population.

The statistics also show a significant decrease in the number of deaths another indication that people are living longer lives.

There were 6,600 deaths registered, a decrease of 300 on the third quarter of 2002, or just over 4%.

The figures also shows a significant decrease in the actual death rate at 6.7 persons per thousand, compared to the same period in 1994 when the rate was eight per 1,000.

There were 5,147 deaths of persons aged 65 and over during the third quarter of 2003 9% lower than the same period in 1994 when 5,661 deaths were registered.

Over the period there were 116 suicides. Suicide is the cause of 30% of all deaths in the 15-24 age group and 23% in the 25-34 age group, making it the largest cause of death in these age groups.

There were 1,250 deaths from heart disease, representing a fifth of all deaths and more than half (700) were due to heart attacks.

Deaths from cancer totalled 1,900 a quarter of all deaths over the period, with over 70% of all cancer deaths occurring in the 65-plus age group.

Cancer accounts for more than a third of all premature deaths, while circulatory diseases account for 23% of all people aged up to 64.

Respiratory diseases accounted for 900 deaths 14% of all deaths and half were due to pneumonia. Around 80% of people who died from pneumonia were aged 75 and over.

Over the three-month period, 85 people died from injuries received in motor vehicle accidents; 12 from homicide and 96 from accidental falls.

There were 85 infant deaths during the 2003 third quarter, up 17 on the period the previous year.