More people in Ireland die from cancer than anywhere else in EU

Statistics from the European Commission's data analysis wing Eurostat show Ireland has 1.78 births per woman, only marginally behind France, which had the highest total fertility in the EU at 1.84.

Ireland is among the highest in the EU for births in recent years but more people die from cancer than anywhere else in the bloc, according to the latest available data.

Statistics from the European Commission's data analysis wing Eurostat show Ireland has 1.78 births per woman, only marginally behind France, which had the highest total fertility in the EU at 1.84. 

The total fertility rate is broadly defined as the average number of children who would typically be born to a woman during her lifetime.

The European average is 1.53. Just over 4m babies were born in the bloc in 2021, the latest available figures. The number of births is way down over the past 50 years, the data show.

The number of live births per 1,000 was 9.1 in 2021. For comparison, the EU rate was 10.5 in 2000, 12.8 in 1985, and 16.4 in 1970. The number of live births in Europe peaked in 1964 at 6.80m.

When it comes to age, the average of women giving birth in Europe continued to rise between 2001 and 2021, from 29 to just over 31. The average age of women having their first child rose from almost 29 in 2013 to nearly 30 two years ago.

Women in the EU appear to be having fewer children while they are young, and more children later, Eurostat said.

"While the fertility rates of women aged less than 30 years in the EU have declined since 2001, those of women aged 30 and over have risen. In 2001, the fertility rate of women aged 25-29 years old was the highest among all age groups. 

"In 2021, the fertility rate of women aged 30-34 became the highest. The fertility rate at ages higher than 35 is also on the increase," it said.

29% of deaths in Ireland were caused by cancers, the highest in the EU, according to the Eurostat data

The latest available data show disease and conditions related to the heart was the leading cause of death in the bloc in the first year of the pandemic, followed by cancer and the covid-19 pandemic.

Some 1.7m died from circulatory system conditions in 2020, followed by 1.2m cancer deaths.

Ireland, however, bucked the trend, with 29% of deaths caused by cancers, the highest in the EU, according to the Eurostat data. By contrast, some 15% of deaths were attributed to cancer in Bulgaria, the lowest in the bloc. The EU average was about 23%.

Covid-19 caused 439,000 deaths during the first year of the pandemic, the highest of which were in Belgium (18%) and Spain (15%). The lowest was in Finland and Estonia at just 1%.

The virus caused 8% of all deaths of EU inhabitants in 2020, and there were almost 12% more deaths in the bloc in 2020 than the average of the four previous years.

In all, about 5.18 m deaths were reported in the EU in 2020, of which 85%  were people aged 65 years and over.

Eurostat included diseases of the circulatory system such as those related to high blood pressure, heart disease, and diseases of the veins and arteries. Heart attacks and strokes were the major cause of most.

Among cancers, the most common cause of death was lung, followed by colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer.

Lung cancer was the biggest cause when it comes to men, followed by accidents, heart attacks, and covid-19. In women, breast cancer was the leading cause, followed by lung cancer and covid-19.

Ireland's backlog of cancer testing is of "grave concern", Taoiseach Leo Varadkar admitted earlier this month, after reports that up to 6,000 people are waiting several months for their results. 

An estimated 1m cancer diagnoses were missed across Europe in the last two years, a major oncology report found last November.