Surge in babies born to mothers aged in their 40s

The number of women having babies in their 40s has shot up over a decade, while the number of teenagers giving birth has halved.

The changing age profile of mothers is captured in the CSO’s Vital Statistics annual report 2015, which also shows a drop in the overall birth rate, down from 14.6 per 1,000 in 2014 to 14 per 1,000 in 2015.

In fact, the number of children born in Ireland in 2015, at 65,536, represents the lowest number of births since 2006 (65,425 births).