Population of Republic set to overtake Scotland’s

THE population of the Republic is set to overtake Scotland’s within the next 15 years for the first time in modern history, according to new demographic estimates.

The latest figures have prompted major concern in Scotland about the negative impact of a falling population on the national economy.

The situation in Ireland’s Celtic neighbour is in stark contrast to the rising population in the Republic which currently stands at around 4.04 million - the highest level since 1871.

Concerns about a declining population has led the Scottish Nationalist Party to sharply criticise the failure of the Labour-run Scottish Executive to arrest the trend.

The Central Statistics Office has forecast that Ireland’s population will rise to five million people by 2019.

The figure highlights the rapid expansion in births and declining emigration over recent decades given that the State’s population stood at only 2.8 million in the 1970s.

In contrast, the Registrar General for Scotland has predicted that the country’s current population of 5.05 million could fall to 4.84 million by 2009. In 2004, Ireland’s population rose by almost 65,000 over the previous year - a figure representing an increase of 1.6%.

Ireland’s growing population is explained by a natural increase in the number of births over deaths and net immigration - both factors which each accounted for around half of the total increase of 64,900.