The number of births registered in Ireland fell again last year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Overall, there were 73,724 births recorded in 2010, down 554 on the previous year.
While the number of births registered remains high by European standards, this marks the second consecutive annual decrease following the high of 75,065 in 2008.
Nonetheless, the number of births recorded in Ireland last year is 27.4 per cent higher than 2001 when 57, 882 births were registered.
Figures from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which were also released this week, show Ireland has the highest birth rate in Europe at 17 per 1,000 of population.
According to the latest CSO statistics, the fertility rate in Ireland remained the same as last year at 2.07 but was down by 1.4 per cent compared to 2008.
In 2010, 42 per cent of births were to first time mothers and just over 34 per cent were to women who were unmarried. Overall, some 54 per cent of all births outside marriage were to cohabiting parents.
More than two-thirds of births were to mothers of Irish nationality. A further 2.4 per cent were to women from the United Kingdom and 1.5 per cent to mothers from the EU15. Over 10 per cent of births registered last year were to mothers from the Accession states while 8.3 per cent were to women from non-EU countries.
The number of deaths registered in Ireland fell by 1,776 last year to 27,133. This represents a decrease of 0.4 per 1,000 population.
There were 279 infant deaths recorded, giving an infant mortality rate of 3.8 deaths per 1,000 live births.
The rate of suicides declined by 7.8 per cent last year, according to the figures. Overall, 486 suicides were reported in 2010, compared to 527 in 2009. Males represented 79 per cent of all suicides reported last year.
There were 20,635 marriages registered in Ireland last year, 906 less than in 2009. The number of divorces granted by the Circuit Court and the High Court was 3,093, a decrease of 248 on the 2009 figure.
