Ireland sees largest population increase since 2008 as immigration hits 15-year high

Most people moving to Ireland were aged between 25 and 44, and half of them had a third-level qualification. Picture: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Ireland had its largest population increase since 2008 in the last year, as immigration reached a 15-year high.

The CSO’s population and migration estimates for the year to April 2022 show the number of people emigrating rose to its highest level since 2017, with 59,600 people leaving Ireland. This included 27,600 Irish nationals emigrating.

The figures for immigration into Ireland stood at 120,700 in the year to April, including 28,900 returning Irish nationals, and 24,300 other EU nationals. This figure also included 28,000 Ukrainians, with most coming as a result of the Russian invasion of the country six months ago.

Most people moving to Ireland were aged between 25 and 44 and half of them had a third-level qualification. Immigration has only been higher once, in 2007, in the past 30 years.

CSO statistician Cathal Doherty said: “Ireland's population was estimated to be 5.10m, increasing by 88,800 persons in the year to April 2022. This was the largest 12-month population increase since 2008 when the population increased by 109,200.” 

Mr Doherty said Ireland had a positive net migration, where more people arrived than left, of 61,100 in the year to April compared to just 11,200 in the previous year.

During the recession of the last decade, there was a negative net migration for a number of years as more people left Ireland than came to live here. This trend was bucked in 2015 and Ireland has had positive net migration in every year since then.

Ageing population

The CSO’s data also shows the Irish population continues to age, with 768,900 persons living in Ireland aged 65 and over.

“Those aged 65 and over had an increase in population share between 2016 and 2022, increasing from 13.3% to 15.1% of the total, a volume increase of 139,100 persons,” Mr Doherty said.

The number of people aged 45-65 in Ireland is also rising, with the 1.279m in this age group representing 25.1% of the population, which is up from 23.8% in 2016.

The proportion of the population aged 44 and below is thus declining, with children up to the age of 14 representing less than one-fifth of the population.

By location, just over 28% of the population reside in Dublin. The 1.451m in Dublin in the year to April is almost 200,000 more people than in 2011.

Cork and Kerry have 734,600 residents, or 14.4% of the population, up from 662,300 in 2011. The mid-east region, comprising Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow has a slightly bigger population at 753,000.

The CSO added: “In April 2022, the region with the lowest contribution to the total population was the Midland region with 310,900 persons (6.1%) followed by the Border (420,900 or 8.3%), South-East (451,900 or 8.9%), West (480,300 or 9.4%) and Mid-West (497,800 or 9.8%) regions.”