One third of the 15,559 births in the Republic in the first three months of this year were to unmarried mothers, according to data released today by the Central Statistics Office.
The highest proportion of births to unmarried mothers was in Limerick at 56.3 per cent, while Roscommon had the lowest percentage at 19.8 per cent.
The number of births outside marriage has nearly doubled in the past decade. From January to April there were 5,181 births registered as outside marriage in the Republic during the first quarter this year, accounting for 33,2. In 1995, the figure was 2,851 or 22.8 per cent of all births that year.
Of the births this year 8,025 were males and 7,574 females. Overall there was an increase of 361 compared to the first quarter last year. This is 25 per cent higher than in 1995 when there were 12,516 babies registered.
Meanwhile 'death' figures show there were 7,873 registered deaths in the Republic in the first quarter this year - 3,953 males and 3,920 females, up 117 on the same period last year: This is 14 per cent lower than 1995 when there were 9.165 registered deaths.