The number of births in Ireland has fallen by almost a fifth in eight years.
According to new figures from the Central Statistics Office, 61,824 babies were born in Ireland in 2017 - a drop of just over 3 per cent on the previous year.
The average age of mothers who had a baby in 2017 was 32.8 years - that's highest since it was first recorded in 1955.
Over a third of all births that year were outside of marriage or a civil partnership.
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In the last 10 years, the number of births to teenage mothers has more than halved.
