The Central Statistics Office has notified that first three months of 2011 witnessed 19,950 births indicating 7.6% increase from analogous months last year.

Of these 19,950 births, 10,221 babies born were boys and 9,729 were girls. These figures have notified the largest count of babies born in three months since the recordkeeping that started 50 years ago.

These figures are little higher than 1980's second quarter's record breaking figures that notified 19,339 births.

The average age of the mother who gave birth was 31.7 years and 40% of the mothers were who delivered baby for the first time.

Also, the statistics have revealed that 34% of the babies born were born to unmarried parents and among these 34%, 3,622 babies were born to the parents who were living together at same address.

If to talk about the death rate in the same period, 7,651 deaths were notified which portrays an increase of 1.2% deaths compared to the analogous period of last year. Among these, 67 were infant deaths which notified an infant mortality rate of 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Nearly, 6,089 deaths belonged to the age group above 65.