Laois continues to be one of the most fertile counties in the country with birth rates well above the national average.
Figures released today by the Central Statistics Office show a birth rate of 13.8%, one of the highest in the country.
There were 298 births in Laois from April to June of this year.
Of those, 159 were male and 139 were female.
The national average birth rate is 12.8 per cent.
Laois has the third highest birth-rate in Leinster, just behind Fingal (15.8%) and Kildare (14.1%).
Offaly is lagging just behind Laois, with a birth rate of 12.9% while Kilkenny (10.9%) and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown (9.4%) are well off the pace in the baby making stakes in the province.
Laois outscores all the counties in Munster and Connacht, with only Cavan – the highest performers in the country with a birth rate of 15.8% – out performing Laois.
Boom
These recent birth rates show that Laois continues to enjoy a population boom.
Laois has one of the fastest growing population figures in the country, results of the Census 2016 recently confirmed.
The total population in the county was 84,697 in 2016.
The population of Laois jumped by 5.1 per cent in the five year period since the last census.
The national average is 3.8 per cent. Only Fingal (8%), Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (5.7%), Meath (5.9%) and Cork City (5.4%) saw their population increase more than Laois.
Laois also has the third highest amount of children per family – 1.4 in the country. Only Meath and Louth, both with an average 1.5 children per family, has more.
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