Fertility & birth rates in Ireland and Sierra Leone

Fertility rate in Ireland vs Sierra Leone chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in Ireland was 1.5 children per woman in 2023, compared to 3.79 in Sierra Leone in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check Ireland vs Sierra Leone population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	Ireland	Sierra Leone
1960	3.78	6.18
1961	3.78	6.21
1962	3.92	6.22
1963	4.01	6.26
1964	4.07	6.29
1965	4.04	6.31
1966	3.94	6.35
1967	3.84	6.38
1968	3.77	6.39
1969	3.83	6.39
1970	3.85	6.41
1971	3.93	6.43
1972	3.84	6.45
1973	3.71	6.47
1974	3.59	6.53
1975	3.37	6.55
1976	3.29	6.55
1977	3.24	6.57
1978	3.21	6.59
1979	3.21	6.58
1980	3.21	6.56
1981	3.05	6.55
1982	2.94	6.56
1983	2.74	6.57
1984	2.58	6.59
1985	2.48	6.59
1986	2.44	6.6
1987	2.32	6.61
1988	2.17	6.59
1989	2.08	6.57
1990	2.11	6.57
1991	2.08	6.55
1992	1.99	6.56
1993	1.9	6.57
1994	1.85	6.56
1995	1.84	6.56
1996	1.88	6.55
1997	1.93	6.53
1998	1.94	6.5
1999	1.9	6.42
2000	1.89	6.36
2001	1.94	6.31
2002	1.97	6.23
2003	1.96	6.09
2004	1.93	5.92
2005	1.86	5.81
2006	1.91	5.74
2007	2.01	5.64
2008	2.06	5.56
2009	2.06	5.45
2010	2.05	5.33
2011	2.03	5.21
2012	1.98	5.06
2013	1.93	4.87
2014	1.89	4.7
2015	1.85	4.55
2016	1.81	4.47
2017	1.77	4.39
2018	1.75	4.29
2019	1.71	4.19
2020	1.63	4.08
2021	1.78	3.98
2022	1.54	3.88
2023	1.5	3.79
2024	1.5	3.7
2025	1.5	3.61
2026	1.5	3.53
2027	1.5	3.47
2028	1.5	3.37
2029	1.5	3.3
2030	1.5	3.23
2031	1.5	3.18
2032	1.5	3.12
2033	1.5	3.07
2034	1.5	3.02
2035	1.5	2.97
2036	1.5	2.92
2037	1.5	2.88
2038	1.5	2.84
2039	1.51	2.79
2040	1.51	2.76
2041	1.5	2.72
2042	1.5	2.68
2043	1.5	2.65
2044	1.51	2.62
2045	1.51	2.58
2046	1.5	2.55
2047	1.5	2.53
2048	1.5	2.5
2049	1.5	2.47
2050	1.5	2.45

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	Ireland	Sierra Leone
1960	30.9%	38.2%
1961	31%	38.3%
1962	30.9%	38.3%
1963	30.9%	38.5%
1964	30.9%	38.8%
1965	31.1%	39.1%
1966	31.1%	39.4%
1967	31.1%	39.6%
1968	31.1%	39.9%
1969	31.1%	40.1%
1970	31.1%	40.3%
1971	31.2%	40.6%
1972	31.2%	40.7%
1973	31.2%	40.9%
1974	31.2%	41.1%
1975	31.1%	41.3%
1976	31%	41.4%
1977	30.9%	41.6%
1978	30.7%	41.7%
1979	30.5%	41.8%
1980	30.4%	41.9%
1981	30.3%	42%
1982	30.1%	42.1%
1983	29.9%	42.2%
1984	29.6%	42.3%
1985	29.3%	42.5%
1986	28.9%	42.6%
1987	28.5%	42.7%
1988	28.1%	42.8%
1989	27.6%	42.9%
1990	27.1%	42.9%
1991	26.6%	43%
1992	26%	43.1%
1993	25.5%	43.2%
1994	24.9%	43.3%
1995	24.2%	43.4%
1996	23.6%	43.5%
1997	23%	43.5%
1998	22.5%	43.6%
1999	22.1%	43.7%
2000	21.8%	43.8%
2001	21.4%	43.9%
2002	21.1%	43.9%
2003	21%	43.9%
2004	20.8%	43.9%
2005	20.6%	43.8%
2006	20.4%	43.7%
2007	20.3%	43.6%
2008	20.5%	43.5%
2009	20.7%	43.4%
2010	21.1%	43.2%
2011	21.4%	43%
2012	21.5%	42.8%
2013	21.5%	42.5%
2014	21.4%	42.2%
2015	21.3%	41.8%
2016	21.2%	41.4%
2017	20.9%	41%
2018	20.7%	40.6%
2019	20.4%	40.2%
2020	20.1%	39.8%
2021	19.8%	39.4%
2022	19.5%	39%
2023	19%	38.5%
2024	18.6%	38.1%
2025	18.1%	37.7%
2026	17.6%	37.2%
2027	17.2%	36.8%
2028	16.9%	36.3%
2029	16.6%	35.9%
2030	16.3%	35.5%
2031	16%	35.2%
2032	15.8%	34.8%
2033	15.6%	34.4%
2034	15.4%	34%
2035	15.3%	33.6%
2036	15.2%	33.2%
2037	15.1%	32.8%
2038	15.1%	32.4%
2039	15.2%	32%
2040	15.2%	31.6%
2041	15.3%	31.2%
2042	15.4%	30.9%
2043	15.4%	30.5%
2044	15.5%	30.2%
2045	15.6%	29.8%
2046	15.6%	29.5%
2047	15.7%	29.2%
2048	15.7%	28.8%
2049	15.7%	28.5%
2050	15.6%	28.2%

Children aged 0-14 make up 18.6% of the population in Ireland and 38.1% in Sierra Leone in 2024, compared to 27.1% and 42.9% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of Ireland and Sierra Leone compared.

Natural population change in Ireland vs Sierra Leone by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +0.58% in Ireland and +2.31% in Sierra Leone. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	Ireland	Sierra Leone
1960	28,286	38,192
1961	25,137	40,022
1962	28,077	41,603
1963	29,667	43,569
1964	31,532	45,487
1965	30,500	47,223
1966	26,866	49,486
1967	29,895	51,734
1968	27,697	53,126
1969	29,326	54,768
1970	30,756	56,513
1971	35,606	58,484
1972	34,316	60,279
1973	34,562	62,443
1974	34,199	65,357
1975	34,128	67,560
1976	33,676	69,506
1977	35,448	71,663
1978	36,288	74,130
1979	38,798	75,992
1980	40,612	77,932
1981	39,364	80,111
1982	38,344	82,457
1983	34,053	84,628
1984	31,791	87,072
1985	29,013	88,869
1986	27,963	90,902
1987	26,904	94,235
1988	22,912	96,344
1989	20,012	98,298
1990	21,787	100,778
1991	21,206	105,477
1992	20,283	103,251
1993	17,166	103,317
1994	17,234	101,486
1995	16,601	100,885
1996	18,915	104,140
1997	21,311	105,433
1998	22,277	103,906
1999	21,402	102,295
2000	23,592	110,754
2001	27,837	116,647
2002	31,062	126,429
2003	32,372	130,312
2004	33,376	132,661
2005	33,279	137,234
2006	36,752	144,127
2007	43,109	145,740
2008	46,691	149,855
2009	47,168	152,669
2010	47,426	155,338
2011	45,801	158,858
2012	42,775	160,915
2013	39,302	161,265
2014	37,728	160,137
2015	35,265	162,275
2016	33,339	168,784
2017	31,379	173,259
2018	29,878	178,772
2019	28,365	181,068
2020	23,687	181,015
2021	26,064	183,326
2022	19,287	186,625
2023	19,638	188,788

Maternal mortality chart: Ireland vs Sierra Leone

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 4 deaths per 100,000 live births in Ireland, compared to 354 deaths in Sierra Leone.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	Ireland	Sierra Leone
1985	11	1,506
1986	11	1,530
1987	10	1,533
1988	11	1,549
1989	10	1,575
1990	11	1,572
1991	10	1,699
1992	10	1,681
1993	9	1,696
1994	9	1,755
1995	9	1,777
1996	8	1,726
1997	8	1,721
1998	8	1,753
1999	7	1,731
2000	8	1,603
2001	7	1,518
2002	7	1,492
2003	6	1,433
2004	6	1,366
2005	6	1,294
2006	6	1,168
2007	6	1,132
2008	6	1,093
2009	6	1,054
2010	6	1,018
2011	6	967
2012	6	915
2013	5	842
2014	5	821
2015	5	730
2016	4	633
2017	4	578
2018	5	491
2019	4	464
2020	6	422
2021	6	403
2022	7	370
2023	4	354

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 0.38% in Ireland and 9.43% in Sierra Leone. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	Ireland	Sierra Leone
1960	3.53%	39.1%
1961	3.38%	38.5%
1962	3.25%	38%
1963	3.13%	37.4%
1964	3.01%	36.8%
1965	2.87%	36.2%
1966	2.71%	35.6%
1967	2.55%	35%
1968	2.41%	34.5%
1969	2.3%	33.9%
1970	2.22%	33.4%
1971	2.17%	32.9%
1972	2.14%	32.3%
1973	2.11%	31.9%
1974	2.06%	31.4%
1975	2%	30.9%
1976	1.91%	30.5%
1977	1.81%	30%
1978	1.69%	29.6%
1979	1.56%	29.2%
1980	1.43%	28.9%
1981	1.32%	28.5%
1982	1.23%	28.1%
1983	1.17%	27.8%
1984	1.11%	27.5%
1985	1.07%	27.2%
1986	1.04%	26.9%
1987	1.02%	26.6%
1988	0.99%	26.4%
1989	0.96%	26.2%
1990	0.92%	25.9%
1991	0.87%	25.7%
1992	0.81%	25.5%
1993	0.77%	25.3%
1994	0.74%	25%
1995	0.73%	24.7%
1996	0.73%	24.3%
1997	0.73%	23.9%
1998	0.73%	23.4%
1999	0.73%	22.9%
2000	0.72%	22.4%
2001	0.69%	21.8%
2002	0.65%	21.3%
2003	0.6%	20.7%
2004	0.56%	20.1%
2005	0.52%	19.4%
2006	0.49%	18.8%
2007	0.46%	18.1%
2008	0.44%	17.3%
2009	0.43%	16.6%
2010	0.42%	15.9%
2011	0.41%	15.2%
2012	0.4%	14.5%
2013	0.39%	13.9%
2014	0.38%	13.7%
2015	0.37%	13.8%
2016	0.36%	12.3%
2017	0.35%	11.8%
2018	0.34%	11.3%
2019	0.34%	10.9%
2020	0.35%	10.5%
2021	0.36%	10.1%
2022	0.37%	9.77%
2023	0.38%	9.43%