THE POPULATION OF Ireland has increased by over 88,000 in the last 12 months – the biggest increase in the population in a single year since 2008.

New data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to the end of April show that Ireland’s population is now estimated to be 5.1 million, rising by 88,800 in the last 12 months.

Aiding the population increase is an increase in the number of immigrants arriving into Ireland, with 120,700 arriving into the country in the last 12 months.

This is the highest number of immigrants arriving into Ireland in 15 years, with 28,900 of those immigrants being returning Irish nationals.

Additionally, 24,300 were EU nationals, 4,500 were UK nationals and the remaining 63,000 were from countries outside the EU. This includes almost 28,000 Ukrainians, up to April.

Central Statistics Office Central Statistics Office

There has been a higher number of people emigrating from Ireland compared to previous years, with 59,600 people leaving the state in the last 12 months compared to 54,000 in 2021.

The total population in Dublin has also seen an increase in the last decade, with the percentage of the population living in the city increasing from 27.6% in 2011 to 28.4% in 2022.

New data on births and deaths was also available, with the number of births increasing by 2,236 in the first quarter of 2022 compared to the same period in 2021. 

There were also 29 fewer deaths reported in Q1 2022 compared to the same period in 2021, with 9,535 being reported.

Of the deaths recorded in Q1 2022, 641 were due to Covid-19 and accounted for 6.7% of the total deaths reported. Of these 359 were male and 282 were female.

Both cancer and circulatory diseases were the biggest causes of death in the first quarter of this year and accounted for 5,316 deaths, which is an increase on the 4,759 deaths that were recorded in the same period in 2021.

Gerard Doolan, Statistician in the Vital Statistics Division said: “Deaths due to malignant neoplasms (cancer) and circulatory disease were the biggest causes of death in Q1 2022 and accounted for more than half (55.8%) of all deaths.”