Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has today published the 2024 edition of the State of the Nation’s Children (SONC) report.
This online report provides a comprehensive picture of our children's lives by presenting key information on children’s health, behavioural and educational outcomes as well as their relationships with their parents and their friends. It also presents data on supports and services available to children.
This report has been published biennially since 2006 and annually since 2020 and is prepared by the Data and Analytics Unit in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.
SONC provides the most up-to-date data on the National Set of Child Wellbeing indicators, and:
• charts the wellbeing of children in Ireland
• tracks changes over time
• benchmarks progress in Ireland relative to other countries
Some of the key findings in the report include:
• In 2024, it is estimated that there were 1,232,714 children living in Ireland. This accounted for 22.9% of the total population. Of these 630,743 children were male and 601,971 were female.
• In 2022, 313 children died in Ireland, an increase from 291 in 2021. This equated to an overall mortality rate of 2.57 per 10,000 children aged under 18.
• In 2022, 81.9% of children aged 10–17 reported finding it easy to talk to their mother when something is really bothering them, a small decrease since 2018 (83.3%). While 70.2% of children aged 10–17 reported finding it easy to talk to their father when something is really bothering them, a slight increase since 2018 (67.9%).
• In 2022, 28.6% of children aged 10–17 reported having been bullied at school in the past couple of months, a slight decrease from 31.1% in 2018.
• In 2022, 78.5% of children aged 10–17 reported being happy with their lives at present. This represents a significant decrease from 88.2% in 2018.
• In 2022, 54.9% of children aged 10–17 reported being physically active for at least 60 minutes per day on more than four days per week, an increase from 51.1% in 2018.
• In 2023 Q4, there were 22,752 child welfare and protection referrals to Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. This was an increase of 1,279 referrals from the same period in 2022.
• In 2022, 26.8% of children aged 10–17 reported that students at their school participate in making the school rules, a decrease since 2018 (32.6%).
• In 2022, 35.8% of children aged 15 reported that reading is one of their favourite hobbies, an increase since 2018 (30.8%).
• Over the four-year period 2019 to 2022, the number of births to mothers aged 15–17 decreased by 6.7% to 153 births.
• In 2022, 63.1% of children aged 10–17 reported that there are good places in their area to spend their free time. This decreased since 2018 (67.2%).
• In 2023, the percentage of newborns visited by a public health nurse for the first time within 72 hours of discharge from hospital ranged from 90.4% to 100% in many local health offices.
• The number of children on an inpatient/ day case waiting list increased by 32.5% between 2020 and 2023. The number of children on an outpatient waiting list has been more variable between 2020-2023 and was at its lowest in 2023.
• In 2023, there were 322 admissions of children to psychiatric hospitals/units and child and adolescent units.
