Róisín Shortall
Question:86 Ms Shortall asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of births to mothers under the age of 20 in each of the past five years; and his views on these trends. [5583/00]
Written Answers. - Birth Rates.
Data on births are routinely published in the annual and quarterly reports on vital statistics compiled by the Central Statistics Office. The most recent annual figures available refer to 1998 and the table below sets out the requested data for each of the years from 1994 to 1998.
Number of Births to Mothers Aged Under 20 Years and
Rate per 1,000 Females Aged 15 to 19 Years,
1994 to 1998
|
Year |
Number |
Rate |
|
1994 |
2,417 |
15.0 |
|
1995 |
2,467 |
15.1 |
|
1996 |
2,700 |
16.3 |
|
1997 |
2,894 |
17.3 |
|
1998 |
3,138 |
18.6 |
Note: Data for 1996 to 1998 are provisional.
Source: Central Statistics Office.
The figures show a substantial increase over the period. There has been a parallel rise in the female population aged 15-19 years between 1994 and 1998 but this explains only a small part of the increase in numbers. The birth rate for the age group has gone up from 15 births per 1,000 population in 1994 to 18.6 in 1998. It should, however be emphasised that the rate for 1994 was the lowest recorded since the 1960's.
In general, fluctuations in fertility rates need to be examined over periods covering more than five years. For all age groups, with the exception of females under the age of 20, the last few decades have been characterised by long-term declines in fertility rates. For the 15-19 age group, there was a significant rise in rates between 1960 and 1980, a fall between 1980 and 1985 and a reasonably steady situation since then. From 1985 until 1997, birth rates in 15-19 year olds have varied between 15 and 17.3 births per 1,000 population. There was a slight increase in rates in the late 1980's, followed by a gradual decline from 1991 to 1994, followed in turn by the present rise in rates. The effect of this has been that the birth rate to young mothers in 1997 was almost identical to the rate pertaining in 1991. While the 1998 figure is an increase over the previous year, considerable care should be taken in interpreting the figures which can, as indicated, show considerable variance from year to year with, for example, the 1980 rate being 23.