Does this surprise anyone? From the Iona Institute:
Irish birthrate slips below replacement levelI will, in large part, blame liberal Irish priests and bishops.
Ireland’s birthrate has dropped below replacement level, new figures have revealed.
The figures, published yesterday in the Central Statistics Office Statistical Yearbook, show that overall, the total fertility rate, the TPFR, which is the number of children born per woman of child-bearing age fell to 2.01 from 2.04 in 2011.
This is just below 2.1, which is considered to be the rate at which a country replaces its population.
The figures also show that over a third of all births last year were outside marriage. Thirty five percent, or 25,344 of the 72,225 registered births in 2012 were outside marriage.
In 2011, 33.7pc of all births were outside marriage. In 2004, the comparable figure was 31.9.
A wealth of research suggests that children raised outside marriage fare worse emotionally, economically and educationally.
[...]
If people in the wealthy West don’t give up their selfish materialism and start having babies, we may see the “annihilation of nations”.
The thousands of refugees fleeing Africa into the EU through Italy can have a new place to hang their hats, with ready made infrastructure and everything!
I direct the Irish people, and everyone else, to Benedict XVI’s Letter to the Irish Catholics HERE.
