Ireland has highest fertility rate in EU - CSO

Ireland had the highest fertility rate and the second-highest proportional increase in the European Union in the past ten years, according to figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

The Republic's population grew by 13.9 per cent to over 4.1 million between 1996 and 2005.

The rate of natural increase of the population in Ireland was 8.3 per 1,000 of population in 2004, compared to an average of 1.0 per 1,000 in the EU.

Ireland had the highest fertility rate in the EU in 2004. The EU average rate in 2004 was 1.5 children per woman, while the rate in Ireland was 1.95. Only France, at 1.9 children for each woman, comes close to the Irish figure.

We also have the highest proportion of children in the EU, with 30.7 per cent of the population under 15 in 2004. However, the average Irish household size fell from 3.13 in 1996 to 2.84 last year, the report says.

The number of lone-parent families with children aged under 20 grew by nearly 80 per cent in the same period.

We also have, at 16.4 per cent, the second lowest proportion of persons aged 65 and over in the 25-country bloc. Of the over 65s, some 31.9 per cent live alone.

In addition to birth rates, the level of immigration into Ireland has had a marked effect on population growth. There has been net migration into Ireland every year for the past decade, with the level rising from 8,000 in 1996 to 53,400 in the year ending December 2005.

Only 16,000 people emigrated from Ireland last year, compared to 31,200 a decade earlier.

According to the CSO, Irish health spending is still below the European Union average.

Non-capital spending on health care in Ireland fell from 5.6 per cent of GDP in 1995 to 4.9 per cent in 1998. It has been steadily increasing since 1998. The latest figure available is for 2004, when spending reached 6.5 per cent of GDP.

This works out at an average of €2,223 per person spent on non-capital public expenditure on health care in 2004. This is an 80 per cent increase on 1995.

However, Ireland's expenditure on public and private health was 7.3 per cent of GDP in 2002, which was lower than the EU average of 8.7 per cent. In Germany, the highest spender on health in the EU, the corresponding figure was 10.9 per cent.

Irish life expectancy rates have risen slightly over the last ten years. In 1995, the average man could expect to live to be 73. In 2003, that figure rises to 75.8. Average lifespans for women in 1995 was 78.1, compared to 80.7 in 2003.

This compares to a mere 58 for both men and women in the 1920s.

The average lifespan in the EU in 2003 was 75.1 for men and 83.2 for women. Swedish men, at 77.9 live longest in the EU, while Spanish women fare best, living for 83.6 years on average.