An Fál Mór (Falmore) in Belmullet, Co Mayo. Bellmullet was one of the three LEAs in Ireland that had more deaths than births in 2021.Ireland's Content Pool

Belmullet in Co Mayo, Glenties in Co Donegal, and Bantry-West Cork in Co Cork were the Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) that had more deaths than births in 2021, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) announced on Thursday, July 24.

The findings were a part of the CSO’s Births and Deaths at Local Electoral Areas (LEA) 2021 report which was released on Thursday.

"Today’s release, which is part of the CSO Frontier Series, provides information and evidence on life events (births and deaths) at Local Electoral Area (LEA),” Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said on Thursday.

“It is the second publication in the series which examines life events at a local level. The first of these publications looked at Deaths and Cause of Death at Local Electoral Areas (LEA) 2021. 

“Care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as Frontier Series releases may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete. 

“The population utilised to calculate rates and present average age at LEAs for 2021 is taken from the Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS). IPEADS is an experimental and evolving platform for the development of population estimates. It must also be emphasised that as an experimental methodology, IPEADS estimates must be interpreted with caution and are not comparable with official CSO population estimates such as Census data.

“Looking at the data, of the 34,844 deaths which occurred in 2021, some areas within Dublin City had the highest number of deaths. Clontarf, Dublin City (528), Ballymun-Finglas, Dublin City (502), and Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City (499) were the LEAs with the highest number of deaths occurring in 2021. 

“In contrast, Leixlip, Co Kildare (65), Ballinamore, Co Leitrim (76), and Granard, Co Longford (80) recorded the lowest.

“Similarly for births, many of the 60,575 births which occurred in 2021 occurred in and around Dublin. North Inner City, Dublin City (755), Howth-Malahide, Fingal (732), and Swords, Fingal (727) were the LEAs with the highest number of births. 

“Ballinamore, Co Leitrim (104), Belmullet, Co Mayo (112), and Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim (117) had the lowest number of births."

Birth Rates at LEA

Nationally, the birth rate stood at 11.5 per 1,000 of population in 2021.

Tallaght South, South Dublin (15.3), Ongar in Fingal (15.3), Maynooth, Co Kildare (14.6), and Firhouse-Bohernabreena, South Dublin (14.5) were the LEAs with the highest birth rates.

Galway City Central, Galway City (8.3), Glenties, Co  Donegal (8.6), and Belmullet, Co Mayo (8.8) were the LEAs with the lowest birth rates in 2021.

Fertility

The general fertility rate is defined as the number of births by women aged 15-49, relative to the population of women aged 15-49. This differs from the birth rate, which looks at the entire population in an area, while the fertility rate only focuses on women.

Nationally the fertility rate stood at 47.5 births per 1,000 women aged 15-49 in 2021. Carrick-On-Shannon, Co. Leitrim (61.2), Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford (60.8), and Ballybay-Clones, Co. Monaghan (60.6) were the LEAs with the highest general fertility rate in 2021.

Urban LEAs such as South-East Inner City, Dublin City (29.8), Galway City Central, Galway City (30.5), and North Inner City, Dublin City (31.1) had the lowest general fertility rate. 

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Crude Death Rates

The national crude death rate, which is the number of deaths divided by the population in an area, stood at 6.6 per 1,000 of population in 2021. Note that crude death rates do not take account of the differences in age structures across LEAs. 

LEAs such as Belmullet, Co. Mayo (13.2), Bantry-West Cork, Cork County (10.6), and Glenties, Co Donegal (10.2) recorded the highest level of crude death rate.

Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (2.1), Glencullen-Sandyford, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (3.0), and Ongar in Fingal (3.1) had the lowest crude death rates per 1,000 of population in 2021.

The Natural Increase 

Looking at births and deaths together allows the calculation of the natural increase (births minus deaths). It provides a snapshot on how a region's population is evolving. Note the natural increase does not take account of migration (inward or outward).

Nationally, the natural increase for 2021 stood at 25,731 (births less deaths). The rate of natural increase stood at 4.9, and varied significantly across LEAs.

Ongar in Fingal (12.2), Tallaght South, South Dublin (11.1), and Firhouse-Bohernabreena, South Dublin (10.8) were the LEAs with the highest natural increase rates in 2021. 

In LEAs such as Swinford, Co Mayo (0.5), and Rathfarnham-Templeogue, South Dublin (0.4), the rate of natural increase was close to neutral. 

Three LEAs recorded a negative natural increase rate, indicating more deaths occurred in the LEA than births. These were Belmullet, Co Mayo (-4.4), Glenties, Co Donegal (-1.6), and Bantry-West Cork, Cork County (-1.3). "

Cause of Death by LEA

Looking at cause of death across LEAs, our analysis indicates different patterns of deaths. For instance, while the crude death rate due to neoplasms stood at 187.0 per 100,000 of population nationally, Ennistymon, Co. Clare had the highest death rate for this cause at 351.6.

For external causes of death, which can include deaths due to suicide, accidents, and other external factors, nationally this rate stood at 30 per 100,000. However, at an LEA level, these crude rates were highest in Tramore-Waterford City West, Co. Waterford (61.1), Ardee, Co. Louth (59.8), Waterford City South, Co. Waterford (55.6), and South-East Inner City, Dublin City (55.6)."