LAST UPDATE | 27 Aug

MORE THAN 69,000 people moved out of the state in the 12 months up to April this year, compared to 64,000 in 2023, the highest emigration figure since 2015, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office. 

The 69,000 emigrants consisted of 34,700 Irish citizens, 10,600 other EU citizens, 3,000 UK citizens, and 21,500 other citizens including Ukrainians.

The CSO found a large number of people moved to Australia, an estimated 10,600 people, up from 4,700 last year, amounting to a 126% increase, the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013.

At the same time, fewer people returned home to Ireland from Australia.

6,400 people made the move home in the 12 month period, compared to 7,700 in 2023, a 17% drop. 

Sinn Féin TD for Galway West Mairéad Farrell said the almost twofold rise in the number of people leaving for Australia comes as “no surprise”.

“We see it in our friendship groups, in our family circles and in our neighbourhoods,” she said. 

“We keep being told that the economy is doing well but very clearly something is going wrong for young people here that they feel there is no alternative but to go to Australia. 

“Rents are so high that many young people have no choice but to continue to live with their parents into their 30s. House prices show no signs of falling and with lack of affordable housing, home ownership is out of the reach of ordinary working people.

“These are young people who have been forced to go abroad because they feel they have no ability to build a life here. Why is the government continuing to fail our younger generation?”

The numbers of people moving to the United Kingdom also went up. 

Estimates show that 15,200 people left Ireland to live in the UK, up 4% from 14,600 in 2023 and 20,500 people moved to Ireland from the UK, up from 18,400 in 2023, an 11% increase.

Labour’s Conor Sheehan also said the news that more people are leaving the country comes as no surprise but that it should shock politicians.

“These figures should shock any politician currently in Dáil Eireann to their very core and are shocking when you compare the economic backdrop of the country of now compared to 2015.

“The unfortunate truth is that we live in a paradox of plenty where anyone who wants a job effectively has one as we have a high skilled educated workforce the envy of the world over but a housing crisis that has escalated from a problem to a full scale national emergency.”

Immigration 

Meanwhile, the number of people who came to live in Ireland also increased in the 12 months to April. 

The population of Ireland rose by 98,700 in the 12 months leading up to last April, the largest 12-month increase since 2008, according to figures released by the Central Statistics Office. At the same time, Ireland saw the highest number of people leave the state since 2015. 

In the same period, 149,200 people came to the country, a 17-year high and the third successive 12-month period where over 100,000 people immigrated to Ireland. 

30,000 of those were returning Irish citizens, the CSO said, while 27,000 were EU citizens and 5,400 were from the UK. 86,800 came from other countries. 

The arrival of Ukrainians contributed significantly to this inflow in 2024, the CSO noted.

There was a natural increase of 19,400 people, with 54,200 births and 34,800 deaths, the figures show. 

Taoiseach Simon Harris, speaking in Paris, said that he saw migration as a positive, and that the important job for the government was to improve the systems that allowed them to process people entering the country.

“If people are coming here seeking international protection then we need to process them more quickly. If it’s a yes then we need to improve the speed at which we integrate them into society and getting them working in the economy, where we desperately need people in some sectors.

“If no, then we need to work on maknig sure they leave our jurisdiction much more quickly,” he said.

He also said that migration is vital to the running of public services.

“I wouldn’t fancy trying to run the public services today without the many people who are working in our hospitals who have come from abroad.

“I wouldn’t fancy trying to meet the housing challenge without the fact that many people working on our building sites have come from abroad, or the hospitality sector as well.

“The figures from the CSO today give us a real insight into what is the tapestry of migration,” he said.

Population trends

The total population now stands at an estimated 5.38 million people.

A breakdown of the overall population shows that the percentage of people over the age of 65 grew from 13.8% to 15.5% between 2018 and 2024, totalling 833,300 people. 

Conversely, the number of people aged between 0 and 14 went down by 2% over the same period and now stands at 1,010,300.

The share of the 15 – 24 year age group in the overall population slightly increased from 12.5% in 2018 to 12.7% in 2024. However, the proportional share has decreased for the 25 – 44 year age group, from 28.7% to 27.5% over the same period. 

In terms of where people are living in Ireland, the proportion of the population living in Dublin has risen from 28.1% in 2018 to 28.5% in 2024, meaning the population of the capital is now 1,534,900 people.

The Mid-East and South-West had the second and third highest populations by region with 785,000 and 773,500 people respectively, or 14.6% and 14.4%. 

The region with the lowest contribution to the total population as of April was the Midlands region with 330,900 people (6.2%) followed by the Border region (439,800 or 8.2%), the South-East (474,800 or 8.8%), the West (509,000 or 9.5%) and the Mid-West (532,400 or 9.9%) regions.