Almost 80 people died by suicide in Ireland in the first three months of the year, including two children aged between five and 14 and 17 people over the age of 65.
The Central Statistics Office has released its Vital Statistics Report on births, deaths and marriages for the first quarter of 2019.
Statistics in relation to deaths are provisional and may be revised as more inquests and investigations are completed over time.
The figures are broadly in line with previous years. CSO data shows that 352 people died by suicide last year, and 392 in 2017. Again, these figures are provisional.
Births
More than 200 teenagers had a baby in the first three months of the year. Of these, 23 were aged 16 or under and three were aged 15 or under.
In total, there were 15,893 births in the first quarter of the year, 7,761 of which were female and 8,132 of which were male. It is 1,234 more than in the same period last year and represents an annual birth rate of 13.1 per thousand people, the same as this time last year.
The average age of mothers continues to increase and is now 33. The average age of first-time mothers was 31.3 years.
The report also noted that there were 1,061 mothers aged 40 to 44, and 101 aged over 45, 41 of whom were first-time mothers.
According to the CSO report, almost two-thirds of births (62%) were registered to married couples. There were 6,0946 births registered outside marriage in the first three months of the year.
Limerick City showed the highest percentage of births outside marriage at 53.9%, with the lowest percentage of this in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown, where it was 24.9%.
Of the 15,893 births registered in the first quarter, 77.7% were born to mothers of Irish nationality. This was almost identical to the same period in 2018.
According to the report, there were 52 infant deaths registered in the first three months of the year. This equates to an infant mortality rate of 3.3 per 1,000 births.
There were also 41 neonatal deaths, referring to deaths of infants under four weeks.
Deaths
According to the CSO report, there were 8,618 deaths in the first three months of the year, a decrease of 7.1%.
Cancer was registered as the most frequent cause and was cited in 30.3% of cases. Issues related to the circulatory system were a factor in 29% of cases, and respiratory diseases were the registered cause of death in 14% of cases.
Accidents, suicides and other was the registered cause of 261 deaths, two-thirds of which were accidents. Of the 261 deaths, two-thirds were male.
The leading cause of death in quarter 1 2019 varied widely by age group. For those aged from 15 to 34 years, external causes of death including accidents, suicide and other ranked first (39 deaths). Among individuals aged 35-74, cancer was the leading cause (1,299), while for those aged 75 and older, it was diseases of the circulatory system (1,866 deaths).
There were 7,197 deaths of persons aged 65 and over registered in quarter 1 2019. This represents an annual death rate of 42.8 per 1,000 population aged 65 and over and represents a decrease of 5.6 when compared with the corresponding quarter of 2018.
Marriages
The number of marriages registered during the quarter was 3,235, of which 120 were same-sex marriages. This is equivalent to an annual marriage rate of 2.7 per 1,000 population, no change from quarter 1 2018.
