Ireland In Midst Of Baby Boom

Ireland is experiencing a baby boom, as birth rates exceed all figures from the last century.

Figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) on Monday show there were 75,065 births last year, the highest since 1896, as Ireland recovered form the great famine.

Just over a third of the births (5,904) in the last quarter of 2008 occurred outside of marriage with almost half to first-time mothers.

The highest percentage of births outside marriage occurred in Waterford city at 53%, while the lowest percentage was in Leitrim at 20%.

The birth rates also saw more boys than girls, with almost 2,000 more boys born than girls. Jack and Ava where also noted as the most popular names registered in 2008.

According to the CSO, Jack retains the top position it held in 2007 while this is the first time Ava has taken the number one spot, climbing from sixth in 2007. There were 1,141 boys named Jack in 2008, 178 more than the number of boys named Sean. There were 685 girls named Ava, 22 more than the number of girls named Katie, the second most popular girls' name.

The top five boy's names chosen where Jack, Sean, Conor, Daniel, and James, while the top five girl's names were Ava, Katie, Sarah, Emma, and Emily.

There were five first time entries to the top 100 for boys: Jakub, Kacper, Filip, Billy and Patryk, while girl's names had an additional four first time entries reaching the top 100 with Maja, Natalia, Zuzanna and Meabh all making the grade.

(DW/KMcA)