Births per 1,000 stood at 8.2 last year, the lowest rate of any county in the last three years, figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
Kerry has consistently been one of the lowest rate counties, being second lowest in 2023 and third in 2022.
This is in part due to Kerry’s aging population. Along with County Mayo, the county in 2016 had the highest average age of all Irish regions at 40.2 years old.
However, Mayo has a higher birth rate, at 9 per 1,000, while County Leitrim, which has an average age of 39.8 years old, has an even greater birth rate, at 10.2 per 1,000.
Deaths per 1,000 were 7.5 in 2024, meaning Kerry’s population expanded by just 109 people due to domestic births and deaths.
Since 2023, the county’s population has increased by over 6,000 people, showing Kerry relies mainly on emigration to fuel its growth.
The biggest increase by age was people between 25 and 29 years old, expanding by 15 per cent since 2023, while the biggest decrease was in seen in infants aged between zero and four years old, at seven per cent.
Councillor Angie Bailey said Kerry’s birth rate statistics were surprising but emphasised that Kerry’s older population must be considered.
“I think a lot of our young people move from Kerry, I think that’s generally been a long-standing problem. We struggle to hold onto our young people, whether they go travelling or getting jobs in bigger cities,” said Cllr Bailey.
“Worldwide this is quite a worrying statistic, but I think we’ve seen it coming, when you see the statistics from Japan and Korea which have been quite low for a long period of time and only reducing.
“While China has taken away the limitation on having children, people still aren’t encouraged to have sometimes even one child. This is going to be a big problem worldwide.”
A government report released last week estimated by 2065, for every 98 people working, there will be 100 not working.
“Ireland’s ageing population is projected to result in a stagnating labour force, suppressing economic growth, increasing the dependency ratio and straining public finances,” the report said.
However, during a Q&A on the report’s findings, John McCarthy, chief economist at the department of finance, indicated the government would not be pursuing pro-natalist policies as attempts in other countries have had “virtually no impact”.
“I think, leaving aside whether from an Irish perspective, if you look at the experience of lots of countries who have tried this, the efforts have been really zero,” said Mr McCarthy.
“In Hungary, if you had a fourth child you were free from income tax for life,” he said, claiming that the policy has “had no impact whatsoever.”
Hungary does spend a considerable five per cent of its GDP on propping up its birth rate, with tax cuts and other incentives, however, since pro-natalist policies were introduced by President Victor Orban in 2010, its birth rate has increased from the lowest in Europe, at 1.2 births per woman, to around 1.6.
This is the largest increase in birth rates among all EU member states since 2010.
Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting scheme