A record number of babies were born to women aged 45 years and over in 2023, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has said.
There were 408 babies born to women aged over 45 in 2023, up 80.5% compared to 2013.
Statistician at the CSO Sean O'Connor told RTÉ's News at One that in 2023, the average age of a mother giving birth was 33.2, which is up from ten years previously, when it was 32.2.
"The highest number of babies born to women 45 and over was recorded in 2023 with 408 births.
"If we take a longer time period, looking back say 50 years to 1973, the average age of a mother giving birth was 29 years. So you can see how it has increased over the last 50 years," he said.
He added that births by women aged over 40 increased by over 25%.
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Ireland's total period fertility rate for 2023 stood at 1.5, which is below the rate of 2.1 needed to replace the population; in 2013 the rate stood at 1.9.
There were 43 fewer births in Ireland in 2023 compared with 2022, but over the last decade, there has been a fall of over a fifth when compared with 2013.
Mr O'Connor said the CSO consistently sees a low figure for the number of babies born at home, with the majority of births tending to be in a hospital setting.
There were 35,649 deaths in Ireland in 2023, representing an increase of 20.8% in all deaths in Ireland since 2013, with an increase of 24.5% in male deaths and 17% for females.
The number of people who died aged 100 years and over in 2023 was 312, of which 61 were male and 251 were female.
Neoplasms, which can be benign or malignant cancerous growths, accounted for the largest number of deaths in 2023 at 10,480, followed by deaths due to diseases of the circulatory system at 9,784 and 4,124 deaths from diseases of the respiratory system.
Mr O'Connor said the death rate has decreased over the last 30 or 50 years.
