Birth rate hits a 112 year high

[odlum833]

Why is it when a recession starts people start breeding like rabbits :P

http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0831/cso.html

Last year saw the highest number of births recorded in Ireland since 1896. In total, 75,065 births were recorded.

The figures were published today by the Central Statistics Office.

The CSO has also published the top ten names chosen for babies last year.

....

[Catmalojin]

From the number of pregnant women around at the moment, looks like 2009 and 2010 will also be "bumper" years.

[plank007]

It's cause they don't sell condoms and abortion is illegal!

[hovis]

is it a 113 year high now?

[niterider]

I don't think the NHS should subsidise abortions for Irish people who travel to England for them. Either sort out the law and allow freedom of choice or foot the bill....hypocritical stances like the one on abortion are just turning the head the other way

[Catmalojin]

Originally Posted by niterider

I don't think the NHS should subsidise abortions for Irish people who travel to England for them. Either sort out the law and allow freedom of choice or foot the bill....hypocritical stances like the one on abortion are just turning the head the other way

I agree 100%. Abortion should be legal, safe and rare in Ireland (north and south). The current situation basically exports it to Britain and the Netherlands (mainly) - even more confusingly information on abortion and the right to travel abroad for an abortion are constitutional rights! It's a completely hypocritical situation, and one that will hopefully be changed in the next few years.

[Rapter]

I'll come here off topic, but how about if we'd create one thread which would be for those kind of off-topic discussions, because, as we can see, those sort of threads after a couple of weeks become abandoned, and forgotten, and just make it to be a bigger mess in this forum, would anyone agree?

[Catmalojin]

Seems we're still at it...

Birth rate at highest level in 51 years
Updated: 11:57, Thursday, 22 September 2011

Official figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the birth rate is at its highest level since its records began 51 years ago.

The CSO says there were 19,950 births registered in the first three months of this year, which was a 7.6% increase on the same time last year.

"This is the highest number of births registered in a quarter since the series began in 1960," it said.

"Births in the first quarter of 2011 represented an annual birth rate of 17.8 per 1,000 population. The rate for the corresponding quarter of 2010 was 16.6 per 1,000 population and 15.6 per 1,000 population in quarter 1 2002."

Fingal in Dublin had the highest birth rate, while South Tipperary had the lowest birth rate.

The CSO figures show that there were 6,768 births outside of marriage in the period.

Limerick City had the highest percentage of births outside marriage at 52%, while Leitrim had the lowest at 21%.

There were 7,651 deaths in the first three months of 2011, which was an increase of 1.2% on January to March 2010.

As a result, the CSO says that natural increase in the population was 12,299.

Story from RTÉ News:
http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0922/cso.html

[thebig C]

This is good news. Afterall we have seen in Irelands past the devastation that a continuously declining population can cause!

I am surprised that Leitrim has the lowest birthrate, you would imagine that with very little in the way of amenities up there people would be more likely to spend time.....:P

C

[Catmalojin]

ESRI says fertility rate is greatly underestimated

CARL O'BRIEN

Mon, Dec 19, 2011

THE FERTILITY rate of Irish women is likely to have been substantially underestimated over recent years due to women delaying childbirth until later in life, new research from the Economic and Social Research Institute shows.

This would have major implications for official population projections and could translate into a natural increase of more than 400,000 people over the coming decades.

As a result, policymakers may in fact be significantly underestimating the number of school places, childcare places and other essential public services needed into the future.

Official figures indicate the total fertility rate – the number of children a woman will have in her lifetime – for Irish women or long-term residents fell to about 1.83 in 2006.

However, Dr Pete Lunn of the ESRI says a detailed analysis of the fertility rate suggests that official figures do not take into account the shift towards childbirth in later life. He estimates the total fertility rate for Irish women may be as high as 2.2.

“The official figures appear to have mistaken a delay in childbirth for a reduction,” Dr Lunn said. “This so-called ‘tempo effect’ has also been a feature in other European countries.”

There has been a steady rise in maternal age for Irish women over decades. The average age for a woman giving birth in Ireland reached 32 years in 2010, up from 28 year in 1990. This is the oldest maternal age in the EU. Ireland also has the highest fertility rate in the union.

If the underestimate of fertility is as great as expected, it would dramatically affect our population growth.

Central Statistics Office projections drawn up in 2008 assumed two scenarios for Irish fertility over coming decades: a low scenario of 1.6 children per woman, and a high scenario of 1.9.

Based on calculations by Dr Lunn, even the high scenario of population growth would be a significant underestimate of the likely increase.

“These increases in population would take several decades to filter through,” he said. “It’s a bit like filling a bath: the flow of water may be greater than the water leaving the plug-hole, but it will still take quite a while for the water to rise.”

However, he said the recession and emigration could still reduce the fertility rate over the coming years.

“The very deep recession could yet bring such a drop in completed fertility about, though there are no signs of that yet,” Dr Lunn said. “Ireland has a history of huge swings in migration, so we can’t take anything for granted,” he said.

The findings are contained in an appendix to a report published last week, Households and Family Structures in Ireland: A Detailed Statistical Analysis of Census 2006.

The figures on fertility rates used in the study are based on Irish women who have been resident here since the 1990s. When more recent migrant women are factored in, it pushes the overall fertility rate higher still.

Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald has expressed interest in the findings and said policy-makers will need to keep population growth assumptions under close review.

The likely change in fertility in Ireland means there is less of a need to pursue policies to encourage parents to have children, as has been the case in many European countries.

However, it would place more pressure on the State to deliver more school places, childcare services and other essential public services, at a time when public finances are under severe pressure.

The potential underestimate in fertility has been the subject of significant research internationally over recent years. Increasingly, scholars are concluding that while fertility undoubtedly fell to low levels in many developed countries in the late 20th century, estimates of very low fertility were probably exaggerated by delayed childbirth.

These delays led to exaggerated dips in the total fertility rate during the late 1990s, which were then followed by increases in fertility in the decade following the year 2000 as women who delayed childbirth began to have children.

© 2011 The Irish Times

...

[thebig C]

Again, this is positive news for the future. Thankfully one of the few areas of the Capital Budget which recieved an increase was the School building programme....40 (20 primary/20 post primary) will be started over the next 5 years......including one at the bottom of my street for which the Department of Education purchased land in 1972!!!!!!

C