Irish Births Continue to Decline

04.07.2018

Only two counties saw a rise in the number of births last year, as Ireland’s birth-rate continues to decline. HSE figures for births in the country’s 19 maternity units total 61,902 for 2017 - down from a high of 75,554 in 2009. The only two maternity units to show an increase in births were in Portlaoise Hospital and Mullingar Hospital. Births in Portlaoise Hospital went up from 1,485 in 2016 to 1,552 last year. The maternity unit in Mullingar saw births edge upwards from 2,107 to 2,114 over the course of the year.

There was a substantial percentage drop in births of 8.1 per cent in Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe, Galway, and in Mayo the number of babies born last year dropped to 1,547, down from 1,650 in 2016. Births in the National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street, Dublin, went down by 5.3 per cent but it remained very busy with 8,619 babies delivered, according to the HSE’s end-of-year performance report.

The ongoing fall in the birth rate has implications for the country’s ability to pay for our growing, ageing population. In Census 2016, 37.2 per cent of the population were aged 45 and over, compared with 34.4 per cent in 2011 and 27.6 per cent in 1986. The number in the 65-and-over age group increased by 102,174 - more than twice the rise in 15 to 64-year-olds, between 2011 and 2016.

Irish Independent. July 3. CSO. May 30.