Fertility in Ireland: Why we are having fewer children, and having them later in life

Education, job prospects, an ageing population, housing costs... The causes of Ireland’s falling birthrate are far from simple

Today we meet one mother who says she simply could not afford to have a second child, and another with four children who explains how tight their family budget is. 

The number of births in Ireland has fallen by over 20% in the last 10 years, with the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicating that between 2022 and 2023 alone, rates dropped by 5%.

While 68,930 births were registered in 2013, the figure had plummeted to 54,678 in 2023. Women are also waiting longer to have their first child. The average age of first-time mothers was 31.6 years in 2023. This is an increase of 3.4 years when compared with 2012, when the average age was 28.2 years.