Over 400 babies born to Donegal mothers since the start of 2022

421 births were registered by Donegal mothers since the start of 2022, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have revealed.

In figures released today it said that of those children born, 181 were registered outside marriage/civil partnerships in the first quarter of 2022.

Nationally, the average age of first time mothers was 31.7, up 0.3 years from that recorded for the same period in the previous year.

The average age of all mothers at maternity for births registered in quarter 1 2022 was 33.3 years, which is up 0.2 years from that recorded in quarter 1 2021.

The average age of first time mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 30.1, while the average age of all mothers outside marriage/civil partnership was 31.2 years.

In the same quarter in 2021, the average age of mothers having their first baby outside marriage/civil partnership was 29.6 years while it was 30.9 years for all mothers for births registered outside of marriage/civil partnership.

The highest number of births registered was in Dublin City with 2,041 (12.7% of total live births in the country) followed by Cork County with 1,355 (8.4%) registered births. Leitrim had the lowest number with 110 (0.7%) registered births in quarter 1 2022.

The highest number of births registered was Dublin City which accounted for 1,360 or 9.8% of births followed by Cork County with 1,218 (8.8%).

Longford had the lowest number, 117 births (0.8%), registered in quarter 1 2021.

Of the 16,131 births in quarter 1, 2022, there were 12,508 babies (77.5%) born to mothers of Irish nationality compared to 10,971 (79.0%) in quarter 1 2021. 

Tragically, there were also 43 infant deaths registered across the Republic of Ireland in the first three months of 2022 giving an infant mortality rate of 2.7 deaths per 1,000 live births, no change on that recorded in quarter 1 of 2021.

Neonatal deaths are deaths of infants at ages under 4 weeks.

There were 34 neonatal deaths registered in quarter 1 2022, giving a neonatal mortality rate of 2.1 deaths per 1,000 live births, which was a decrease of 0.1 from the same period in 2021.