LIMERICK city and county both saw far more births to mothers aged 40 and over than to mothers younger than 20 in the second quarter of 2018.
The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that in Limerick city, just ten babies were born to mothers aged under 20 between April and June of this year, while 18 were born to mothers older than 40.
In the county, just three babies were born to teenage mothers, while 44 were born to mothers aged over 40.
The average age of women having their first baby in Limerick city was 28; while the average age of all women who gave birth between April and June was 31.1.
The average age of first time mothers in Limerick county was 31.6, while the average age of women giving birth overall was 33.5.
More than half of all babies born to mothers living in Limerick city in the second quarter of 2018 were born outside of marriage or civil partnership.
Of the 227 babies born to mothers with a city address, 111 were born to parents who were married or in a civil partnership, while 116 babies, or 51.1 per cent, were born outside of these unions.
461 babies were born to parents living in Limerick county between April and June of this year; of these 311 were born to married parents, while 150, or 32.5 per cent, of the mothers were not married or in a civil partnership.
In Clare, 147, or 42 per cent, of the 349 new babies in the county were born outside of marriage or civil partnership.
Just eight babies in Clare were born to mothers aged under 20, while 33 were born to women older than 40. The average age of first time mothers in the county was 30.9; the average age among all mothers was 33.1.
In Tipperary, 196 of the 470 births in the county were outside of marriage or civil partnership. 56 babies were born to mothers aged over 40, while just six were younger than 20.
The average age of first time mothers in Tipperary was 30.3; the overall average age of mothers was 32.7.
by Kathy Masterson
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