One-third of babies in Ireland were born outside of marriage in 2016.
New figures released by the Central Statistics Office show that 36 percent of births recorded in the State were to parents who weren't married.
The total number of births for 2016 was 63,897.
This is over 2,000 less than the previous year.
The figures also show that there were 510 more marriages registered in 2016 compared to the previous year.
