Ireland's fertility rate falling as women become first-time mothers later in life, new data shows

CSO said the average age of first-time mothers last year was 31.7 years.

Women in Ireland are becoming first-time mothers later in life, while the fertility rate is also declining, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said.

Publishing its set of “vital statistics” for 2024, the CSO said the average age of first-time mothers last year was 31.7 years. This is an increase of 1.2 years, with first-time mothers aged 30.5 years on average in 2014.

It is also significantly higher than the average age of 28.5 years for first-time mothers in 2004.

The fertility rate for 2024 stood at 1.5, which was a fall of 0.5 from the rate of 2.0 in 2014.

There were 54,062 births and 35,173 deaths registered in Ireland in 2024https://t.co/J23DzgVGfL#CSOIreland #Ireland #VitalStatistics #VitalStats #Births #Deaths #Marriages #IrishBabiesNames #BoysNames #GirlsNames #BabyNames
---------------------------------------------- pic.twitter.com/7ELLy74gzP

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) May 23, 2025

CSO statistician Sean O’Connor said: “The total period fertility rate [TFPR] is derived from the age specific fertility rates in the current year.

“It represents the projected number of children a woman would have if she experienced current age specific fertility rates while progressing from age 15-49 years. A value of 2.1 is generally considered to be the level at which the population would replace itself in the long run, ignoring migration.

“In 2024, the TPFR for Ireland was 1.5, which is below replacement level.” 

Over the last decade, the number of births in Ireland fell from 67,462 in 2014 to 54,062 in 2024.

Meanwhile, the figures also showed there were 35,173 registered deaths in Ireland last year.

Of these, more than four fifths (83.2%) were in people aged 65 and over. There were 197 infant deaths recorded last year, giving an infant mortality rate of 3.6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

More than half of deaths last year were from cancers (29.3%) or from diseases of the circulatory system (27.3%).

Mr O’Connor said: “Deaths due to accidents, suicide and other external causes accounted for a further 1,563, or 4.4%, of death registrations. Of these, 351, or 22.5%, were classed as intentional self-harm.

“All deaths due to external causes are reported to the coroner's office for further investigation, therefore the number of registrations for any given year will likely underrepresent the number of deaths which have occurred due to accidents, suicide or other external causes of mortality.”

Separately, there were 20,348 marriages registered in Ireland last year. Of these, 668 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate in 2024 was 3.8 marriages per 1,000 population compared to 4.7 per 1,000 in 2014.

Earlier this week, to mark 10 years since the marriage equality referendum, the CSO said there have been 5,956 same-sex marriages celebrated in Ireland, accounting for just over 3% of the marriages here in that time.