Facts and figures do fascinate and surprise, and the 2015 Statistical Yearbook of Ireland, compiled by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), does not disappoint. From deaths and births to names, marriages and tourism, this information is sourced from a year of the office's publications in 2014.

But first some basics:

- Population of the Republic of Ireland is 4.59 million ( For the whole island is about 6.4 million)

- The whole island is just 32,599 square miles, about the same size as the state of Indiana. That’s 174 miles wide, at it’s widest point and 302 miles long.

Here’s just some of the fun figures released by the CSO this year:

BIRTHS

- There were 67,462 births registered, 1,468 fewer than in 2013

- 3,829 children were born to mothers aged between 40 and 44.

- There were 24,490 births registered as outside marriage, accounting for 36.3% of all births.

- 64% of births were to women aged between 30 and 39.

MARRIAGES

- There were 22,045 marriages. The average age of grooms and brides is 35 years and 33 years respectively, the highest recorded to date.

- There were 392 civil partnership ceremonies, 242 between males and 150 between females.

- Over three-quarter or 76% of these same-sex couples reside in the Leinster area with 39.5% giving an address in Dublin City as their future residence.

DEATHS

- There were 29,095 deaths registered in 2014.

- Of these, malignant neoplasms and diseases of the circulatory system account for just over 61% of all deaths.

NAMES

- Jack and Emily are the most popular babies' names. Jack continues to be the most popular boys' name for the 8th year in a row and Emily is the top girls name for the 4th successive year.

SEX / AGE

- Estimated average age of the population continued to increase and stood at 37.0 in April 2015 compared with 35.6 in 2009, a gain of 1.4 years. Since 1996, when it was 34.1, the average age has increased by almost 3 years.

- Overall it is estimated that there were 56,300 more females than males in the State in April 2015 resulting in an overall sex ratio of 97.6 males for every 100 females.

TOURISM

- In 2014 26.4 million passengers passed through Ireland’s five main airports, an increase of 6.9% over the previous year.

- 7.6 million overseas trips were made by non-residents to Ireland compared to 7.0 million trips in 2013, an increase of 8.9%.

- Residents of Great Britain took almost 3.2 million trips to Ireland during 2014, an increase of 235,000 trips (8.0%) compared to 2013.

- The most important overseas markets in terms of non-fare expenditure within Ireland in 2014 were USA and Canada (26.4%) and Great Britain (24.9%).

For more facts and figures visit www.cso.ie.

* Originally published in Oct 2015.