CSO figures show fall in 2013 births of 4% in a year

Almost 69,000 live births were recorded in 2013 to mothers with an average age of 32.

The Central Statistics Office says 35,000 of these were boys and 34,000 were girls, a 4% decrease on the 2012 figure but a 12% rise on the numbers a decade previously.

The fertility rate for 2013 was 1.96%, slightly below the optimum level of 2.1%.

More than a third of all births were outside of marriage - the highest number was in Limerick and the lowest in Dun Laoghaire Rathdown in Dublin.

The CSO says the number of twins born has increased dramatically over the past 20 years from 11.8% in 1993 to a high of 18.7% in 2013.

Almost 30,000 deaths were recorded in 2013, with almost two thirds of these being due to circulatory system diseases and cancer.