Nearly 60 per cent of all births in Limerick city in the third
quarter of last year were outside marriage, according to the latest
Vital Statistics figures.
Nationally, 33.8 per cent of all births were outside marriage,
according to the figures, compiled by the Central Statistics Office
(CSO).
This constituted a rise of 1.4 per cent on the same figure in
2009.
However, in Limerick, 58 per cent of births in the city were to
unmarried mothers, a huge increase, 12 per cent, on the same figure in
2009, when 46 per cent of all births in the city were out-of-wedlock.
The figures show that the rate of unmarried births in Limerick city
grew more than six times faster there than the national average.
Figures from the first quarter of 2010 showed that 62 per cent of births
in Limerick city were outside marriage, up from 53 per cent in the same
quarter in 2009.
According to the data, there were 173 births in the city in July to
September last year and 100 of these were to unmarried mothers, while 73
were to mothers who were married.
Twenty one per cent of all births
were to unmarried parents living at the same address.
Data shows that marriage, on average, provides children with far more
stability than cohabitation.
According to the British Millennium
Cohort Study, only 10 per cent of married couples will have broken up by
the time their child is five, compared with 25 per cent of cohabiting
couples.
Only 35 per cent of British children born into a cohabiting union
will live with both parents throughout their childhood, compared with 70
per cent born to married couples.
In addition, the average length in
Britain of a marriage that ends in divorce is 11.5 years compared with
just two years for a live-in relationship.
Irish data also shows that
only 25 per cent of cohabiting couples are still cohabiting after seven
years. The rest have either broken up or married.
Overall, there were 19,171 births registered in the third quarter of
2010, 118 lower than the corresponding total for the 3rd quarter in
2009. Of these, 6,481 births were registered as outside marriage.
The figures showed that 18.3 per cent of all births were to unmarried
parents living at the same address, an increase of 1.3 per cent on the
corresponding figure from 2009.
The lowest percentage of births outside marriage was in both Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and Galway County at 25 per cent.
A total of 7,815 births (41 per cent) were to first time mothers in
quarter three of 2010. Second time mothers had 6,392 births (33.5 per
cent).
First births in the third quarter of 2009 and 2005 accounted for
42.6 per cent and 40.7 per cent of all births respectively.
The average age of mothers for births registered in quarter 3 2010
was 31.4 years, 0.2 years more than the corresponding figure in quarter 3
2009, 0.5 years more than in quarter 3 2005, and 1.1 years more than in
quarter 3 2001.
The average age of mothers having their first child in
quarter 3 2010 was 29.4 years.