The average age of first-time mums in Northern Ireland has risen to almost 30 – as the age has continued to increase over the last three decades.
According to the Registrar General’s 102nd annual report the average age of brides and grooms has also continued to rise.
It found that the average age of first-time mums is up from 25.9 years in 1993 to 29.5 years in 2023.
The average age of all mums also rose from 28.3 years to 31.4 years in the same time period.
August was the most popular month to get married, while the proportion of births to teenage mothers remained the same as 2022 at a record low, according to the report published by NISRA.
The report shows that the number of births to teenage mothers (mums under age of 20) reduced from 2021 to the lowest on record at 463 in 2022.
However, looking at the proportion of all births – births to teenage mums remained the same, accounting for 2.1 per cent out of the total 19.962 births registered in 2023.
Of the 19,962 births registered – there were 10,203 males and 9,759 female – of those 46.4 per cent happened outside of marriage or civil partnership, compared to 22.0 per cent three decades ago.
2023 saw the stillbirth rate decrease from 3.4 per 1,000 births in 2022 to 3.3 per 1,000.
A total of 67 stillbirths were registered in Northern Ireland in 2023.
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There were a total of 7,494 marriages registered in 2023, including 318 same sex marriages and 89 conversions from civil partnerships to marriage.
The average age for brides and grooms increased to 34.1 and 36.1 years respectively, compared with 27.3 years for brides and 29.4 years for grooms in 1993.
August was the most popular month to get married in 2023 with 1,059 marriages taking place.
There were 39 civil partnerships registered in 2023 which is down from 43 registered in 2022, 6 of which involved male partnerships, 4 involved female partnerships, but the majority, 29, were opposite-sex partnerships.
The number of deaths registered in 2023 was 17,254, which showed a 0.6 per cent increase to the level in 2022 which was at 17,159.
At the broadest level cancer continued to be the most common cause of death in 2023, accounting for 27 per cent of all deaths.
Lung cancer was the most common site of cancer for both sexes.
At a more detailed level, a leading cause of death for all persons in 2023 was dementia and Alzheimer’s disease accounting for 2,026 and equating to 11.7 percent of all deaths.
When analysed by sex, dementia and Alzheimer’s diseases was the leading cause of death for females accounting for 15.4 per cent (1,333) of all female deaths.
But for males the leading cause of death was ischaemic heart disease which was attributed to 945 deaths (11.4 per cent) of all male deaths.
There were 221 registered deaths due to suicide (including deaths from self-inflicted injury and events of undetermined intent) in Northern Ireland in 2023, an increase from 203 in 2022 but lower than the 2021 total of 237.
Over three quarters (77.4 percent) of all deaths due to suicide were men.
The number of adoptions decreased by 13.7 per cent from 124 in 2022 to 107 in 2023. The average age children were adopted was five years old. The number of gender recognition registrations, whereby individuals re-registered their birth with a new gender, completed in 2023 was 20, up from 6 in 2022.