More than half of all births in the first quarter of this year in Limerick city were outside marriage, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.
Some 56.3 per cent of births were outside marriage in Limerick city compared to just 19.8 per cent in Co Roscommon.
The figures show the proportion of births outside marriage continues to rise in the Republic as a whole. One in three births is now outside marriage compared to just over one in five in 1995.
The figures, published yesterday, on births, deaths and marriages, also show that the trend towards smaller families is continuing.
Only 27 per cent of births in the first quarter of the year were to mothers who already had two or more live born children. This compared to 35.6 per cent in the same period in 1995.
Moreover, women are waiting on average two years longer to have children compared to 1995.
The average age at maternity in the first quarter of 2004 was at an all-time high of 30.7 years.
Despite this, the annual birth rate is up to 15.7 per 1,000 of the population - an increase of 0.1 per 1,000 on the same period last year and of 1.7 per 1,000 on the same period in 1995.
In total, there were 15,599 births in the first three months of this year, an increase of 25 per cent compared to nine years ago. Male births outnumbered females by 8,025 to 7,574.
Some 14 births were to girls aged 15 and under - below the age of consent for sex. A total of 582 births were to women aged 40 and over.
The rise in births outside marriage comes despite an increase in the number of marriages registered in the State. Some 2,676 marriages were registered in the first quarter of the year, twice as many as in the corresponding period in 1995.
After Limerick city, the areas with the highest proportion of births outside of marriage were Dublin city (48.8 per cent), Cork city (43 per cent), Louth (42.9 per cent) and Waterford city (40.1 per cent).
After Roscommon, the areas with the lowest proportion of births outside of marriage were counties Leitrim and Galway (both 21.5 per cent), Mayo (22.8 per cent), counties Cork and Monaghan (both 23 per cent), Co Cavan (23.4 per cent) and Co Limerick (24.8 per cent).
There were 7,873 deaths in the first quarter of the year, of which 3,099 were caused by diseases of the circulatory system and 2,057 by malignant cancerous neoplasms.
Among 15-24 year-olds, the principal cause of death was "external injury or poisoning". Of 44 deaths in the age group, nine were caused by road transport accident, two by accidental falls, three by other accidents, seven by suicide and two by homicide or assault.
In the population as a whole, almost three times as many men as women took their own lives - 40 versus 14 in the first quarter of 2004.
There was one fatality from HIV/AIDS - a woman in the 25-34 year-old age bracket.
