Women in Ireland are having more children than women in any other EU country, new figures show.
Despite high childcare costs and record numbers of women entering the workplace, figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) yesterday for 2003 show Irish women had an average of almost two children.
Provisional figures for 2004 and 2005 suggest the birth rate is continuing at a similarly high rate.
While we have the highest fertility rate in the EU, we are slightly behind the US, where woman have an average of just over two children.
Official figures show Ireland had a fertility rate of 1.98 children per woman in 2003, followed by France (1.89 children), Denmark and Finland (both 1.76).
Accession countries had the lowest birth rates. The Czech Republic ranked at the bottom of the EU's 25 member states (1.18 children), preceeded by Slovakia and Slovenia and Poland.
A breakdown of Irish figures shows teenagers and women in their 20s had slightly less children in 2003 then in recent years. However, this was compensated for by women in their 30s and early 40s who had more children.
Prof Tony Fahey, a sociologist with the ESRI and co-author of Family Formation in Ireland, said Ireland's economic success appeared to be the driving factor behind our high birth rate.
"It's striking that, despite what people say about the cost of childcare, we still have the highest fertility rates in the EU. The real driving factor would appear to be the economy and jobs," he said.
"Ireland shares something in common with the US in that State support for childcare is pretty meagre . . . The lesson in the modern world is what encourages families to have children is not affordable childcare or tax breaks, but simply the abundance of jobs."
While fertility rates in Ireland are relatively high, the level is well behind figures for the 1960s and 1970s, when the average rate was consistently above three children.
The rate began to decline quickly during the 1980s, when the average rate was above two children. It hit a low of 1.85 in 1995. However, the figure began to rise in parallel with economic growth.
Other figures published yesterday show the traditional family unit is continuing to change. Latest figures, contained in the CSO's Vital Statistics Annual Report for 2003, show over 31 per cent of births in 2003 were outside marriage.
This compares to 19 per cent in 1993 and 2 per cent in the 1960s.
For women having their first child, over 43 per cent of births were outside marriage in 2003. This figure decreases to just over a quarter of second children born outside marriage.