Census 2016 results released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reveal a drop in the number of births nationwide since 2010.
The number of babies born in Ireland was down to 67,000 in 2015 from 77,000 in 2010.
Despite this, Ireland’s population has increased by 3.8% (173,613) in the last five years. There are now more than 4,761,867 of us living here, although the numbers still represent the slowest population growth in two decades.
Here’s the latest data on Irish families:
• Households got slightly bigger: Average household size rose from 2.73 in 2011 to 2.75.
• More people are renting: The number of households renting on census night 2016 amounted to 497,111, an increase of 22,323 on the 2011 figure.
• Over a third of people are married: 37.6% of the population is married and there are 97.8 males for every 100 females in the country.
• People are slightly older: The average age now is 37.4, compared to 36.1 in 2011
• The average number of children per family is unchanged at 1.38
• The number of divorced people increased by 16,125 to 103,895.
• This is the first time the Census has recorded same sex civil partnerships and marital status and logged a total of 6,034 same sex couples in Ireland. 3,442 were male couples and 2,592 were female.
