Ireland continues to have the highest birth rate of 27 EU countries – but the rate of births is declining.
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The ESRI has released its Perinatal Statistics for 2011, which show 74-thousand-377 babies were born in Ireland last year – that’s down 2-point-2 per cent since peak levels in 2009.
About a third of all babies born here are to women who class themselves as being single and around a quarter of all mothers are foreign nationals.
Professor Miriam Wiley of the ESRI says the perinatal mortality rate continues to improve, which is good news.
