Irish Statistics
MONEY
Ireland is in the top 20 of spending per capita worldwide
CUTTING / SELF HARM
10% of teenagers cut or burn themselves to relieve stress and other psychological issues. The issue is getting bigger and more popular among younger teenagers. To this end there are dedicated ‘Self-harm’ teams in most A & E units in Irish hospitals. They deal mostly with 14-20 year olds.
TEENAGE PREGNANCY
The age of sexual consent for boys and girls is 17.
The age of an legal adult is 18.
Ireland has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in Europe.
ABORTION
Three quarters of all foreign women attending British clinics for abortions give an address in Ireland. Thats an estimated 7,000 Irish women. The number of teenagers travelling to Britain for abortions climbs sharply during the first three months of the year. There are undoubtedly more Irish women obtaining abortions in other countries, including Holland, America and Australia. Economic researchers estimate that the Irish exchequer benefits to the tune of over £60,000 a year in the transport taxes alone paid by those travelling for an abortion. Airlines and ferry companies earn around £7,500 per day from these same women.
ALCOHOL ABUSE
The highest levels of binge drinking in Europe occurs among 15-16 year olds in Ireland
71% of 14-19 year olds drink up to five drinks in a typical week.
Alcohol is the 2nd biggest factor of bad mental health
Between 1989 and 1999 consumption of alcohol in Ireland increased by a staggering 41 per cent
Between 15and 25of admissions to accident and emergency units were alcohol-related.
There has been a four-fold increase over the last five years in the number of women who had been so drunk they could not remember if they had been sexually assaulted.
Alcohol consumption has increased here on a per capital basis by 46 per cent from 1989 to 2000.
SUICIDE
There has been more than a 700% increase in suicide since the sixties.
There is one suicide every 82 minutes in UK and Ireland.
Suicide accounts for 18% of all deaths.
Ireland is number 16 for the highest suicide rates per capita worldwide.
Up to 10,000 cases of attempted suicide are being treated by Irish hospitals every year
75% of suicides are by males.
Suicide is now the most common cause of death among 15 to 24 year olds in Ireland.
A disturbing feature is the level of the male suicide rate, which accounts for 80% of deaths. There is an increased suicide rate in males due to hopelessness while at the same time Ireland has been booming economically. Why is this?
Males find it:
1. Harder to find a role and an identity in society.
2. Young males are often lost.
3. If unemployed they are unsuccessful. They feel discarded
and have increased likelihood of considering suicide.
4. They tend to se the strategy of the stiff upper lip/machismo.
5. Females rearing children in some ways has not changed over the years but of course the massive increase in working outside the home has. Nevertheless in agricultural communities women always worked on the farm so it not that radically new.
Dublin: 101 people died in 2005 from suicide, 79 were male, 22 female.
DIVORCE
The average divorce rate in the EU is 40 marriages out of 100. The smallest divorce rate is in Ireland is only 16%
The number of people listing their status as divorced has risen by 70% in the past 4 years, the census reports.
In 1992 the figures showed 35,100 divorced people in Ireland; in 2006 that number was 59,500.
Approximately 45,000 couples are separated in Ireland and 20 percent of children are born to unwed mothers
CENSUS 2002: The number of divorced people in the State has more than trebled
SEXUAL ADDICTION
One third of the profits made on the Playboy magazine in the UK are made in Ireland.
Approx 13 million was spent on prostitution in the South of Ireland in 1999.
The average person between the age of 8-18 sees 90,000 sexual images.
There is growing concern in counselling circles about the level of sexual addiction in Ireland.
52% of PG programs on television contain high sexual content.
STD’s
Over 1,000 teenagers were diagnosed with STI’s in 2004.
The number of people contracting STDs increased by 10% over a six-month period in Ireland last year.
Since 1989, the country has seen an almost 300% increase in the amount of reported sexually transmitted cases.
RAPE
According to the Dublin Rape Crisis centre:
Only 39.5% of people raped are raped by strangers.
This year has seen an 100% increase in first time callers to report rape or sexual assault. There is a 20% rise in the amount of women attending sexual assault treatment centres Of the 15,000 calls to the centre, 42% were related to child sexual abuse.
4% of reported rapes are female, while 16% are male.
EATING DISORDERS
The number of young people under the age of 14 who develop anorexia is on the increase.
Nine times more females than males suffer from eating disorders.
84,000 Irish people are affected by anorexia
effects of anorexia with anorexia:
• difficult to become pregnant,
• developing osteoporosis later in life.
• Personality and mood swings may also take a while to settle,
• emotional difficulties
• extreme weight loss.
• Constipation and abdominal pains.
• Dizzy spells
• fainting.
• Swollen stomach, face and ankles.
• Downy hair on the body; loss of hair on the head when recovering.
• Poor blood circulation and feeling cold.
• Dry, rough, discoloured skin.
• Disrupted menstrual cycles.
• In men, loss of libido.
• Loss of bone mass and, eventually osteoporosis (brittle bones)
• Psychological signs of anorexia.
• Changes in personality and mood swings.
• Rituals attached to eating, such as cutting food into tiny pieces
• Secrecy.
• Restlessness and hyperactivity
252,000 Irish people are affected by bulimia.
Effects of bulimia include:
• Malnutrition.
• Serious heart, kidney and liver damage.
• Intestinal ulcers.
• Ruptured stomach.
• Tears of the esophagus.
• Dehydration.
• Tooth/gum corrosion.
• Depression.
• Shame and guilt.
• Mood swings.
• Low self-esteem.
• Withdrawal.
• Perfectionism.
• Impaired family and social relationships.
• “All or nothing” thinking.
DRUGS
Ireland is the 13th easiest country to obtain drugs in worldwide
Drug-users in Ireland have among the highest rates of HIV and hepatitis C in Europe.
Drug dealers have increased by 40% since 1998
In Ireland 76,000 people have smoked cannabis in the last month. 39% of teenage girls and 39% have smoked cannabis.
Cannabis is the 11th most harmful drug.
Effects are : immediate sense of well being, giggliness, sleepiness, hunger, impaired short term memory, increased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, forgetfulness, 4 times more tar on the lungs, lung disease, panic attacks, high anxiety, schizophrenia.
Ecstasy effects are: dizziness, exhilaration, euphoria, over heating, drinking too much water leading to swelling of the organs, coma and death.
One recent study found that most heroin addicts will never be able to break free from their addiction. It revealed that in addition to the physical problems associated with taking heroin, addicts tended to suffer from depression, anxiety and physical illness as a result of their failed attempts to quit the drug. In Dublin there are only 5,000 treatment places for an estimated 13,000 addicts. Many drug users remain beyond the reach of health board services, and as they are often homeless as well, they rarely come in contact with any branch of the health or social services, apart from the Gardai. Merchants Quay runs a 12 week residential programme on a farm where the participants can develop farming related skills and learn to break free from the environment in which they used to take drugs. A health board funded project, Soilse, also attempts to treat addiction by addressing the person’s social and educational needs.
CRIME
Ireland is in the top 40 of crime per capita worldwide
432 recorded incidents of arson took place in the first 3 months of 2007.
Drug related offences are up by 22.2%
Almost 350 guns and knives and other weapons were handed in under the weapons amnesty in Ireland 2006.
SEXUAL ASSAULTS
Of the 15,831 calls made to Rape Crisis Ireland this year 45 were Child sexual abuse cases, 41 were Adult Rape cases, 8 were Adult Sexual Assault cases, 4 were Both child sexual abuse and adult rape/sexual assault cases and 1 was a Sexual Harassment case
*Total counselling calls – 15,831 *Total genuine counselling calls – 11,808 (refers to the number of calls when hoax, hang-ups and silent calls have been subtracted.) *First time callers – 3,929 *Repeat calls – 3,687 *Information calls – 3,787 *Total number of calls including education and training calls – 36,899
*Equivalent contacts with 24 hour Crisis Line Jan 2001 – Dec 2001: *Total counselling calls – 14,012 *Total genuine counselling calls – 9,982
*Child sexual abuse 45% *Adult Rape 41% *Adult Sexual Assault 8% *Both child sexual abuse and adult rape/sexual assault 4% *Sexual Harassment 1%
Sex of Caller:
*Female 81%
*Male 19%
Note: 70% of rapes had occurred within a year of contact with the Centre but only 9% of child sexual abuse cases had occurred within the last year.
Geographic location *Dublin 74% *Elsewhere 26%
Age of Victim *under 15 8% *15 to 19 32% *20 to 29 27% *30 and over 33%
Sources – www.irishhealth.com, EMCDDA (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction), WHO (World Health Organization), ESPAD (European School Survey Project on Alcohol and other Drugs), The Irish Times and The Rape Crisis Centre of Ireland
