The number of respiratory-related deaths registered during the second quarter of this year was more than 11 per cent higher when compared with the same period last year, new figures show.
On Friday, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) published the latest vitality statistics for quarter two of 2024.
According to the data, the number of registered births decreased by 93 or 0.7 per cent across these three months – April, May and June – to 13,354 births when compared with the same quarter in 2023.
There were 8,804 deaths registered in the same quarter, which was 55 more deaths (0.6 per cent) than in the same period in 2023.
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The statisticians note that although the publication details the number of births and deaths registered in that quarter, those events may have occurred earlier in the year but been subject to delays in registration.
According to the CSO, there has been an increase in respiratory-related deaths primarily due to three different illness types.
Chronic lower respiratory disease, which would include bronchitis and asthma among others, was by 10 per cent from 472 deaths to 522; pneumonia deaths rose 17 per cent from 209 to 245; and deaths relating to influenza rose from 9 to 33 – an increase of 266 per cent.
Overall, however, more than half of registered deaths during this time were from either malignant neoplasms (29.4 per cent), which is a cancerous tumour or diseases of the circulatory system (27.3 per cent).
Fifty-seven children under the age of one died, giving in an infant mortality rate of 4.3 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The rate of neonatal deaths, those occurring in infants aged under four weeks, rose slightly over the past 10 years.
There were 37 neonatal deaths registered in the second quarter of 2024. The neonatal mortality rate per 1,000 live births was 2.8 in Q2 2024, compared with 2.5 in the same period in 2014.
However, the CSO said this rate of neonatal mortality is derived by dividing the number of deaths by the number of live births. Due to the lower number of births, the rate has increased even though there have been fewer deaths.
The average age of all mothers during this time was 33.2 years, down from the 33.3 years last year, while just under two in five (39.9 per cent) of births registered were outside marriage or civil partnerships.
There were 5,359 marriages registered during this time, down from 5,560 in quarter two of 2023, of which 176 were same-sex marriages. The marriage rate across these three months was four marriages per 1,000 population.
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