CarnalNation

Irish women are the most fertile in Europe, the Irish Independent reports, taking the title back from their French counterparts.

Numbers just released from the national Central Statistics Office show that the average Irish woman has 2.05 children, an increase from 1.9 in previous years.

Whether it is due to the economic boom of the late Nineties and early Noughties, the continuing downfall of the Catholic Church, or other social factors, more and more women are having children outside of marriage. This includes both women who are in long-term relationships but are not married to their partners, and those who are not in relationships.

Overall, about 33 per cent of births happen outside of marriage, with this number increasing to 44 per cent for first-time mothers. If you travel to Cork, in the south-eastern part of the country, the number of children born to single mothers is 49.6 per cent. In Limerick, this figure reaches over 50 per cent.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center shows a similar trend in America – over 40 per cent of births are to unmarried women, compared with just 28 per cent 20 years ago.

Though relegated to second place, French women are still doing their bit for god and country, having the second-highest fertility rate within the European Union. There, every woman has an average of 1.98 children. Meanwhile, in the UK, the average woman has 1.92 children, while the number in Poland, which limps in at fourth place, is 1.3.