Ireland Most Fertile Country In EU And Tops Baby League
Updated : Aug 7, 2009
Irish mothers top the baby league of Europe which now has a population heading towards 500 million.
Ireland produces more babies per head of population than any of the other 26 nations in the EU, new figures show.
Last year, 5.4 million babies were born in the 27 EU member states, equal to 10.9 per 1,000 inhabitants.
Ireland holds the record as the most fertile EU country with 16.9 births per 1,000 inhabitants, the report from Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, shows.
We are followed by France (13), Britain (12.9), Estonia (12), Sweden (11.9) and Denmark (11.8) the Herald reports.
Only in Germany were fewer children born in 2008 than in previous years (8.2 per 1,000 inhabitants last year, compared with 8.3 in 2007).
On January 1 last, the EU population was estimated to stand at 499.7 million, compared with 497.7 million on January 1, 2008.
At the other end of the scale, Ireland, along with Cyprus and Turkey, had the lowest death rates in 2008.
Ireland's death rate was 6.4 per 1,000 in 2008, the same as 2007.
The death rate for the 27 EU countries was stable at 9.7 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants in 2008, the same as in 2007.
Ireland's population on January 1 last was 4.4 million people, the statistics show.
