Age of first-time mothers highest in 50 years

THE age of first-time mothers is at its highest in 50 years, according to figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office. (CSO).

Women in Dun Laoghaire where the average age of first-time motherhood is 32.7 years are waiting longest, while the youngest first-time mums are in Cork city, at 26.6 years.

The highest rate of unmarried mothers was in Limerick city, where they gave birth to 52.3% of children born between January and March. In contrast, the lowest rate was 20% of births outside marriage in Co Roscommon.

The CSO figures show the average age of first-time mothers in the first three months of this year was 28.6 years, up slightly on the average for all of 2004.

This compares to an average age of 27 for first births in 1996, and is the oldest average since the CSO began recording vital statistics 50 years ago.

CSO statistician Joseph Keating said: "The average age of all mothers giving birth has risen by almost a year in the last decade, and has been rising steadily since the early 1980s."

The average age of the 15,334 women who gave birth in the first quarter was 30.9 years, up from 30.7 last year, while the one-third of those who were unmarried had an average age of 26.8 years.

The proportion of births registered outside marriage is up from less than one-quarter in 1996.

The CSO data also reveals that the number of marriages in Ireland is continuing to rise. A total of 2,909 couples wed between January and March this year, a rise of 233 or 8.5% on the same period in 2004.

The 15,334 births registered between January and March is a decrease of 265 on the same quarter last year, and the number of deaths also fell by 521 to 7,352.

There were 2,818 (38%) deaths due to heart disease and stroke, 1,906 (26%) deaths due to cancer, and 1,247 (17%) due to respiratory diseases.

Meanwhile, the CSO also revealed that local authorities cleared the way for more than 54,000 new houses and apartments to be built across the country in the first half of the year.

Planning permissions were granted for 40,851 new houses and 13,317 apartments during the first six months of 2005.

Planning applications for 28,818 dwelling units were granted in the second quarter, an 11% increase on the same period in 2004.

In the first three months of the year, around 25,350 dwellings were given the green light for development.

Officials cleared the way for 6,880 new apartments to be built between April to June, compared with 7,313 units in the same months last year.

One-off houses accounted for 19% of all the new dwelling units granted permission in the second quarter. This compares with 25% of the total amount of dwellings given permission in the same period in 2004.

Officials granted permission for 575 one-off houses in Co Donegal, 382 in Co Galway, 545 in Co Cork, 487 in the mid-east region and 724 in the south-east area.

In the second quarter, the total floor area planned accounted for 5.73 million square metres.