Published: Friday, 29th January, 2010 12:00pm

300 babies born in Offaly from April to June 2009

by Danielle Harney

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More than two-thirds of babies born in Offaly in the second quarter of 2009 were to married parents.

A total of 300 babies were born during April, May and June last year, with 154 male and 146 female. This was a rate of 16.1 births per year per 1,000 population. This birth rate was average for Leinster, but higher than many border and western counties.

Of these babies, 213 or 71% were born to married parents, and 87 to unmarried parents.

The average age women in the county who gave birth in this period, was 30.4 years and the average age of first-time mothers was 28.9. Nine women in Offaly were over the age of 40 when they gave birth. Ten were under 20, with nearly two-thirds of women aged 25 to 34.

Of the 87 births outside of marriage, the average age of a first-time mother was 25.5 and 34 were under 25. A further 32 were between 25 and 29. No single mothers over the age of 40 gave birth in that period.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the scale, there were a total of 103 deaths in the county in the second quarter of last year.

A total of 59 were male and 44 were female. The highest number of deaths, 34, were caused by diseases of the circulatory system, while the cause of another 31 deaths was "malignant neoplasm" or tumours. A total of 16 people died due to diseases of the respiratory system, while five died of external causes and another 14 of other causes. The death rate was 5.5 per year per population.

One infant died in those three months of 2009 - a mortality rate of 3.3 per 1,000.