Ireland Census of Population 2022 - Summary Results - Migration and Diversity

https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpub...nanddiversity/

This chapter includes information from a range of census questions relating to the diversity of people in Ireland. In 2022, people were asked to provide details on their country of citizenship, their ethnic group or background, their religion, the languages they speak and whether they were recent migrants. Together, the information from these questions produces detailed insight into the socio-demographic characteristics of the population of Ireland.

Irish and Non-Irish Citizenship

There were 4.3 million people who usually lived in Ireland who indicated that they had either Irish only or dual Irish citizenship. This made up 84% of the population of usual residents. The number of non-Irish citizens increased in 2022, accounting for 12% of the population.

- The biggest non-Irish groups were Polish and UK citizens followed by Indian, Romanian and Lithuanian.

- Brazilian, Italian, Latvian and Spanish citizens were also among the larger non-Irish groups.


Table 4.1 Population usually resident and present in the State by citizenship, 2016 to 2022
Citizenship 2016 % 2022 % Percentage change since 2016
Total Irish 4,082,513 87 4,283,490 84 4.9
Irish Only 3,977,729 85 4,112,893 81 3.4
Dual Irish 104,784 2 170,597 3 62.8
Non-Irish 535,475 11 631,785 12 18.0
No nationality (incl. not stated) 71,933 2 169,604 3 135.8

The question on nationality changed in Census 2022 to capture information on country of citizenship. This change may have impacted comparisons with previous census data.

- Indian, Romanian and Brazilian citizens were the groups which increased by the biggest numbers since 2016.

- In 2022, the number of Polish people declined by 24% compared with the previous census, and the number of people with UK and Lithuanian citizenship also decreased.

- Although up from 63,276 in 2006 to 122,515 in 2016, the number of usual residents from Poland declined by 28,835 in 2022.

- A similar pattern can be seen for usual residents from Lithuania, increasing from 24,628 people in 2006 to 36,552 in 2016 and then declining to 31,177 in 2022.

There were 18,566 people present in the State on Census Night who indicated that their country of citizenship was Ukraine. Many of these people indicated that their country of usual residence was not Ireland, so they are not included in the figures published here on country of citizenship which are based on people who were usually resident in Ireland at the time of the census.


Table 4.2 Non-Irish population usually resident and present in the State by selected citizenships, 2016 to 2022
Citizenship 2016 2022
Poland 122,515 93,680
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the) 103,113 83,347
India 11,465 45,449
Romania 29,186 43,323
Lithuania 36,552 31,177
Brazil 13,640 27,338
Italy 11,732 18,319
Latvia 19,933 18,300
Spain 12,112 17,953
France 11,662 13,893
Croatia 5,285 13,649
United States of America (the) 10,519 13,412
China 9,575 13,050
Multiple/Dual citizenship 5,412 12,534
Germany 11,531 12,390
Ukraine 1,785 11,791
May 30, 2023 11:00:00 UTC
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY017

Dual Irish Citizens

People completing the census may have been citizens of more than one country. Everyone who ticked both 'Ireland' and 'Other citizenship' in the country of citizenship question on their census form have been grouped in these results as dual Irish citizens.

- The number of people recording dual Irish citizenship was 170,597, representing a 63% increase from 2016.

- People born in Ireland account for 37% of this group.

- The largest groups of dual Irish citizens were Irish-UK, Irish-American, Irish-Polish and Irish-Australian.

- Among the Irish-UK citizens, 87% were born outside Ireland. This was more balanced for Irish-American (55% born outside Ireland) and Irish-Polish (50%) citizens.

Table 4.3 Dual Irish citizens usually resident and present in the State by place of birth, 2022

Citizenship Ireland All countries excluding Ireland
Ireland - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the) 4,264 27,643
Ireland - United States of America (the) 13,405 16,639
Ireland - Poland 8,636 8,516
Ireland - Australia 9,071 5,373
Ireland - Nigeria 2,884 5,201
Ireland - Other Europe(1) 1,848 4,076
Ireland - Romania 1,669 4,048
Ireland - Other countries 1,339 3,498
Ireland - Philippines (the) 452 2,867
Ireland - Canada 2,998 2,857
Ireland - Pakistan 1,274 2,682
Ireland - South Africa 458 2,533
Ireland - Brazil 736 1,673
Ireland - Latvia 941 1,477
Ireland - New Zealand 667 1,005
Ireland - Lithuania 943 992
Ireland - Thailand 210 966
Ireland - Moldova 166 907
Ireland - Other Africa(1) 240 839
Ireland - France 1,848 829
Ireland - Germany 1,195 729
Ireland - Hungary 440 680
Ireland - Italy 1,154 642
Ireland - Spain 1,086 634
Ireland - Bangladesh 164 607
Ireland - Egypt 254 604
Ireland - Bulgaria 219 558
Ireland - Sudan (the) 286 514
Ireland - India 156 481
Ireland - Algeria 374 459
Ireland - Croatia 174 410
Ireland - Belarus 184 409
Ireland - Iraq 68 399
Ireland - China 119 354
Ireland - Congo 53 343
Ireland - Zimbabwe 42 340
Ireland - Syria 86 336
Ireland - Malaysia 179 324
Ireland - Libya 273 323
Ireland - Viet Nam 47 315
Ireland - Netherlands (the) 250 309
Ireland - Slovakia 371 302
Ireland - Mexico 111 274
Ireland - Bosnia and Herzegovina 27 270
Ireland - Czechia 267 230
Ireland - Iran (Islamic Republic of) 78 225
Ireland - Other America(2) 34 207
Ireland - Morocco 55 204
Ireland - Albania 43 201
Ireland - Serbia 52 196
Ireland - Other Asia(1) 116 191
Ireland - Portugal 299 183
Ireland - Kenya 48 164
Ireland - Argentina 71 161
Ireland - Japan 220 131
Ireland - Sweden 219 114
Ireland - Finland 207 83
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY090

Place of Birth

80% of the usually resident population was born in Ireland. This represents a decrease of 3% since 2016.

- The number of people who usually lived in Ireland but were born elsewhere stood at 20% of the population.
- This represented 1,017,437 people, an increase of 207,031 from six years previously.
- The biggest increases were recorded in the number of people born in India (up 35,673), Brazil (23,760) and Romania (13,758).

Table 4.4 Actual change of the top ten population groups usually resident and present in the State by place of birth, 2016 to 2022

Birthplace Value
India 35,673
Brazil 23,760
Romania 13,758
Ukraine 11,054
Moldova (the Republic of) 9,683
South Africa 7,801
Croatia 7,541
England and Wales 7,246
Spain 6,547
United States of America (the) 5,586
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY016

Place of Birth - large changes

Periods between censuses can see marked changes in the number of people resident in Ireland born in certain countries.

- The number of people living in Ireland but born in Syria increased more than four times to 3,922 since 2016.
- A large increase was also recorded in the number of people born in Chile which more than tripled, growing to 1,363.
- The number of usual residents born in Poland fell by 9,018 to 106,143 people in the six years since 2016.

Recent Immigration

Information collected on usual residence one year ago provides an indication of inward migration into Ireland in the year leading to April 2022.

- In the year preceding the census, 89,512 people moved to Ireland which represents approximately 2% of the usually resident population.

- Of these, 22,137 were Irish citizens and 66,020 were non-Irish citizens.

- Most Irish citizens came from the UK (38%), Australia (12%) and the US (8%). This pattern is similar to the one seen in the year prior to Census 2016.

- The largest group of non-Irish citizens taking up residence in the State in the year prior to the census came from India, with 9,687 arrivals.

- This was followed by people coming from Brazil, recording 5,175 arrivals.

Previously Lived Abroad

The census question on residing outside the Republic of Ireland provides information on when people came to live in the State.

- Nearly 250,000 people who were usually resident in Ireland in 2022 had settled in the country between 2017 and 2022.

- Slightly more than half (55%) of these arrived in the pre-pandemic years, 2017 to 2019.

- A further 113,096 arrived in Ireland between 2020 and 2022.

- The majority of these people were born outside Ireland; 183,207 compared with 66,222 who were born in the State.

Year of taking up Residence Ireland All countries excluding Ireland All countries
Not stated 23,512 63,479 86,991
Before 1951 481 859 1,340
All years 2017 - 2022 66,222 183,207 249,429
All years 436,541 640,940 1,077,481
2020 to 2022 During/post Covid 25,400 87,696 113,096
2017 to 2019 Pre Covid 40,822 95,511 136,333
2012 to 2016 58,938 93,066 152,004
2007 to 2011 36,633 69,949 106,582
2001 to 2006 55,401 108,707 164,108
1991 to 2000 96,796 66,196 162,992
1981 to 1990 37,510 20,166 57,676
1971 to 1980 37,456 23,898 61,354
1961 to 1970 20,005 9,549 29,554
1951 to 1960 3,587 1,864 5,451
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY018

Arrivals in Ireland by Country of Previous Residence
Looking at intercensal periods, between the years 2007 and 2011, the number of people moving to live in Ireland was 106,582. This compares with 164,108 people who moved to live in Ireland between 2001 and 2006.

- Between 2012 and 2022, 401,433 people arrived to live in Ireland; of these 62% arrived between 2017 and 2022.

- Arrivals from the UK increased to 36,899 between 2012 and 2016 and again to 49,422 between 2017 and 2022.

- A similar pattern can be seen in arrivals from other European countries (excluding the UK) with just over 68,500 people moving to Ireland in the years 2017 to 2022 compared with just under 60,000 in the four years up to 2006.

- Australia and the USA each accounted for 6% of the arrivals between 2017 and 2022.

- Arrivals from Australia declined after their peak, which was reached between 2012 and 2016.

Table 4.7 Population aged one year and over usually resident and present in the State who lived outside Ireland by country of previous residence and year of taking up residence in Ireland, 2022

Year of taking up Residence All countries United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (the) European countries exl Ireland United States of America (the) Australia Other countries
All years 1,077,481 386,632 272,762 78,242 75,786 264,059
Before 1951 1,340 982 56 126 10 166
1951 to 1960 5,451 4,272 226 411 37 505
1961 to 1970 29,554 22,879 1,110 2,612 230 2,723
1971 to 1980 61,354 47,202 2,839 4,005 1,442 5,866
1981 to 1990 57,676 36,151 5,356 6,229 2,995 6,945
1991 to 2000 162,992 94,722 21,407 17,403 12,097 17,363
2001 to 2006 164,108 51,567 59,634 12,708 12,979 27,220
2007 to 2011 106,582 29,338 40,157 6,813 9,801 20,473
2012 to 2016 152,004 36,899 47,107 9,612 17,923 40,463
2017 to 2019 Pre Covid 136,333 28,926 36,459 8,329 10,091 52,528
2020 to 2022 During/post Covid 113,096 20,496 32,098 7,280 5,413 47,809
All years 2017 - 2022 249,429 49,422 68,557 15,609 15,504 100,337
Not stated 86,991 13,198 26,313 2,714 2,768 41,998

Ethnic Group/Background

In Census 2022, a revised question on Ethnic Group/Background was asked, introducing several new ethnic groups such as Roma, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Arab.

- Of the population usually resident and present in the State in 2022, 77% identified as White Irish.

- Of the new ethnic groups added for Census 2022, 94,434 people identified as Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi.

- A further 20,115 identified as Arab and 16,059 as Roma.

- There were more males than females in each of these three groups.

- The number of usually resident Irish Travellers increased by 6% to 32,949.

- Compared with 2016, people in the Other Asian ethnic group almost halved to 44,944, which may be due to the introduction of the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi category.

- The number of people identifying as Chinese increased to 26,828.

Table 4.8 Population usually resident and present in the State by sex and ethnic group/background, 2022

Ethnicity Both sexes Male Female
All ethnic or cultural backgrounds 5,084,879 2,515,954 2,568,925
Any other White background 502,081 245,378 256,703
Arab 20,115 10,968 9,147
Asian or Asian Irish - any other Asian background 44,944 19,396 25,548
Asian or Asian Irish - Chinese 26,828 12,370 14,458
Asian or Asian Irish - Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi 94,434 50,766 43,668
Black or Black Irish - African 67,546 32,811 34,735
Black or Black Irish - any other Black background 8,699 4,382 4,317
Not stated 313,176 161,614 151,562
Other including mixed background 64,992 31,602 33,390
White Irish 3,893,056 1,921,947 1,971,109
White Irish Traveller 32,949 16,172 16,777
White Roma 16,059 8,548 7,511
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY023

Ethnic Group/Background by Age
The profile of people usually resident in the State varies by age and sex composition for different ethnic groups/backgrounds.

- The age profile of the people identifying as White Irish reflected that of the general population, while other ethnic backgrounds were quite different.
- Irish Travellers were generally younger than the general population.
- There were proportionately more people aged under 14 years and between 25 and 44 years who identified as Roma than in the general population.
- Over half of the people within the Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group/background were aged between 25 and 44 years.

Religion

A question on religion has been a part of the Irish census for many years which creates a long historical time series charting the relative growth and decline in the number of people identifying with various religions and also with no religion. The question on religion used in Census 2022 differed from the Census 2016 version which may impact comparability. See the Background Notes for more details.

- The percentage of the population who identified as Roman Catholic fell from 3,696,644 (79%) in 2016 to 3,515,861 (69%) in 2022.

- The total number of Roman Catholics fell by 180,783.

- The figure for people with no religion increased by 284,269 and stood at 736,210.

- The Church of Ireland category showed little change but remained the second largest religious category with 124,749 people.

- Other categories with large numbers included Orthodox (100,165) and Islam (81,930).

- The number of Hindus more than doubled from 13,729 to 33,043.

Table 4.9 Actual and percentage change in population usually resident and present in the State by religion, 2016 to 2022

Religion 2016 2022
All religions 164,640 394,958
No religion 195,111 284,269
Not stated 50,681 220,213
Orthodox (Greek, Coptic, Russian) 16,774 39,388
Islam 13,902 19,898
Hindu 3,427 19,314
Church of Ireland, England, Anglican, Episcopalian -1,833 2,137
Christian (Not Specified) -3,656 1,374
Pagan, Pantheist 762 1,164
Other stated religion (nec) -5,789 763
Born Again Christian 2,565 573
Presbyterian -647 511
Sikh 1,705 478
Baptist 423 426
Protestant 6 388
Spiritualist 2,922 371
Apostolic or Pentecostal -683 307
Seventh Day Adventist 1,178 273
Jewish 246 272
Jainist 134 215
Satanism 78 111
Rastafari 114 89
Jehovah's Witness 240 68
Church of Christ 378 59
Scientologist 87 45
Jacobite 296 41
Shinto 53 33
Brethren -37 29
Taoist 171 29
Hare Krishna -4 26
Zoroastrian 35 26
Salvation Army 52 17
Unificationist -26 3
Congregationalist 8 -6
Eckist 30 -8
Deist 97 -12
Theist 30 -12
Kimbanguist 69 -33
Society of Friends -51 -44
Lapsed Church of Ireland 70 -47
Unitarian 473 -70
Baha'i 11 -71
Pastafarian 92 -92
Mormon 7 -98
Jedi Knight 2,050 -250
Buddhist 1,003 -305
Evangelical 5,396 -722
Methodist, Wesleyan -433 -741
Lutheran -499 -1,158
Agnostic 1,613 -2,125
Lapsed (Roman) Catholic 6,826 -4,840
Atheist 3,726 -6,535
Roman Catholic -134,543 -180,783
May 30, 2023 11:00:00 UTC
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY030

Religion by Irish and Non-Irish Citizenship

The proportion of Irish and non-Irish citizens differed across religion categories.

- Irish citizens accounted for almost 94% of Roman Catholics but only for 25% of the people in the Hindu category.

Table 4.10 Irish and non-Irish population usually resident and present in the State by selected religions, 2022


Religion All citizenships Ireland
Roman Catholic 3,515,861 3,291,149
Orthodox (Greek, Coptic, Russian) 100,165 35,721
No religion 736,210 573,142
Islam 81,930 44,007
Hindu 33,043 8,112
Church of Ireland, England, Anglican, Episcopalian 124,749 104,966
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY032

Religion by County

Across counties, there were differences in religion categories relative to the county size.

- Mayo had the highest proportion of Roman Catholics at 80% of the county’s population, closely followed by Tipperary, Offaly, Roscommon and Galway County, all reporting 79%.

- Dublin City recorded the lowest percentage of Roman Catholics at 53%.

- No religion was recorded for 24% of people living in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, but only for 7% of the people in Monaghan.

Table 4.11 Population - number and percentage - by religion and administrative county, 2022

All religions

Administrative Counties Number of Persons by Religion (Number) Percentage of Religion by County (%)
Carlow County Council 61,968 ..
Cavan County Council 81,704 ..
Clare County Council 127,938 ..
Cork City Council 224,004 ..
Cork County Council 360,152 ..
Donegal County Council 167,084 ..
Dublin City Council 592,713 ..
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council 233,860 ..
Fingal County Council 330,506 ..
Galway City Council 84,414 ..
Galway County Council 193,323 ..
Ireland 5,149,139 ..
Kerry County Council 156,458 ..
Kildare County Council 247,774 ..
Kilkenny County Council 104,160 ..
Laois County Council 91,877 ..
Leitrim County Council 35,199 ..
Limerick City & County Council 209,536 ..
Longford County Council 46,751 ..
Louth County Council 139,703 ..
Mayo County Council 137,970 ..
Meath County Council 220,826 ..
Monaghan County Council 65,288 ..
Offaly County Council 83,150 ..
Roscommon County Council 70,259 ..
Sligo County Council 70,198 ..
South Dublin County Council 301,075 ..
Tipperary County Council 167,895 ..
Waterford City & County Council 127,363 ..
Westmeath County Council 96,221 ..
Wexford County Council 163,919 ..
Wicklow County Council 155,851 ..
May 30, 2023 11:00:00 UTC
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland

Languages Other than English or Irish Spoken at Home

First introduced in the 2011 census, the question relating to foreign languages spoken at home continues to provide important data on the linguistic diversity within Ireland's population.

- In 2022, 751,507 people usually resident in Ireland spoke a language other than English or Irish at home.

- This represents an increase of 23% from 612,018 people who spoke a language other than English or Irish at home in 2016.

- Polish remained the most commonly spoken foreign language with 123,968 people speaking it.

- However, the number of people who spoke Polish declined by 9% since 2016.

- The number of people speaking French and Russian at home also declined, both by 6%.

- The fastest growing language spoken was Ukrainian (up 165%), followed by Hindi (154%) and Croatian (137%).

- Reflecting the growing Brazilian population, the number of people speaking Portuguese at home more than doubled to almost 44,000 people in 2022.

Table 4.12 Population usually resident and present in the State who speak a language other than English or Irish at home, actual and percentage change since the previous census, 2022

Population Usually Resident and present in the State who speak a language other than English or Irish at home

Language Spoken Value
All languages 751,507
Polish 123,968
Romanian 57,383
French 51,568
Spanish 48,113
Portuguese 43,985
Lithuanian 34,885
Other stated languages (incl. not stated) 29,744
German 27,926
Chinese, nec 24,709
Malayalam 24,674
Arabic 23,234
Russian 20,434
Italian 18,725
Urdu 16,307
Latvian 15,349
Hindi 13,902
Croatian 12,247
Filipino 10,892
Yoruba 10,343
Hungarian 9,586
Slovak 9,336
Other Asian 8,940
Ukrainian 8,077
Tagalog 6,551
Bengali 6,245
Other African 5,874
Tamil 5,502
Dutch 5,341
Czech 4,999
Afrikaans 4,961
Bulgarian 4,175
Turkish 4,036
Igbo 3,872
Irish sign language 3,578
Telugu 3,125
Albanian 2,991
Punjabi 2,537
Pashto 2,534
Thai 2,478
Greek 2,353
Swahili 2,219
Somali 2,150
Persian 2,094
Japanese 2,063
Swedish 2,041
Other Eastern European 1,975
Shona 1,898
Vietnamese 1,623
Serbian 1,582
Lingala 1,495
Kurdish 1,484
Malay 1,412
Other Northern European 1,311
Georgian 1,309
Bosnian 1,305
Edo 1,228
Other Southern European 1,139
Korean 1,083
Estonian 1,044
Nepali 1,001
Finnish 922
Danish 858
Sign Language (Not Specified) 733
Hebrew 711
Irish cant 699
Nyanja (Chichewa) 649
May 30, 2023 11:00:00 UTC
© Central Statistics Office, Ireland
https://data.cso.ie/table/FY020

Level of English by Citizenship

Of the 751,507 people who spoke a foreign language at home, 57% indicated that they spoke English very well and a further 26% that they spoke English well. 11% indicated that they did not speak English well and 2% did not speak it at all.

- Over 80% of Polish citizens spoke English either very well or well.

- 91% of Indian citizens reported that they spoke English very well or well.

- Some of the highest percentages of English spoken very well or well were recorded for citizens from Malta (98%), Denmark (97%) and South Africa (96%).

- Lower percentages were recorded for citizens from Ukraine (44%), Moldova (57%), Syria (61%) and China (71%).

Languages Spoken by Irish-born Population

Of the 751,507 people who spoke a language other than English or Irish at home, 212,285 were born in Ireland.

- Among those born in Ireland, the most commonly spoken languages were French (32,244 people) and Polish (32,060 people).

- A further 18,966 Irish-born people spoke Spanish at home.