This article is from page 5 of the 2006-06-20 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 5 JPG
JUST 10 babies were born in the county last year, according to official figures.
Instead, the majority of Clare babies were born in Galway and Limerick maternity hospitals, as the Banner County has no maternity hospital of its own.
According to CSO vital statistics, first-time mums in Clare are a year older than the national average.
The figures revealed this week showed that the average age of women from Clare giving birth was 29.3 years old, compared to the national average of 28.6 years.
More than 1,600 Clare women gave birth, the majority of whom were between the ages of 30 and 34 years.
Less than 60 women were under the age of 20, while 91 were over 40 years old.
More than a quarter of all babies born to Clare mothers last year were born outside marriage, with 430 births in the county to unmarried mothers.
The majority of births registered in this category were to women under 25. There were 170 mothers in this category.
There were more boys born in the county than girls, with 851 males registered and 802 females.
The CSO’s vital statistics also reveal that the number of births in Clare last year doubled the number of deaths.
There were 1,653 births, while there were 813 deaths.
Of the recorded deaths in the county, 620 people were over the age of 65, and more males than females passed away. A total of 132 people died in the last quarter of the month.