Ireland’s Population Tops 5 Million For The First Time Since 1840’s

Ireland’s population has gone above 5 million people for the first time since the Great Famine, census figures show.

After decades of continuous decline in the Irish population since 1841, it is now 83% higher than its low point in 1961 when the total was 2.8 million.

The proportion of the Irish population who identified Catholic fell from 79% in 2016 to 69% in 2022, but it was argued that this could be partly due to the change in the phrasing of the census question.

The question changed from asking what religion a person holds, to including “if any” at the end and having “no religion” as the first of the multiple choice options listed.

14%

The percentage of people who answered ‘no religion’ on the 2022 census

(Central Statistics Office)

The number of people responding with ‘no religion’ grew from 10% in the 2016 census to 14% in 2022.

There was an increase of almost 390,000 people living in Ireland between 2016 and 2022, with statisticians saying that this was because of the natural increase – the number of people who died subtracted from the number of people born in Ireland – and net migration – the number of people arriving minus the numbers of people leaving Ireland.

The population in every county rose between 2016 and 2022, and those increases ranged from between 5% in counties Donegal, Kilkenny and Tipperary, to 14% in Co Longford.

Population growth tended to be stronger in the east of the country, with Co Meath growing by 13%, the Fingal area by 12% and Co Kildare by 11%.

Between 2016 and 2022, the average age has increased from 37.4 years to 38.8 years, and the number of people who have non-Irish citizenship has increased from 11% to 12%.

170,597

The number of people w3ho hold dual Irish citizenship

(Central Statistics Office)

Statisticians from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), who explained the results on Tuesday, said that there was evidence of an aging population in the 2022 census results.

Older age groups grew in size while the younger ones declined, they said, adding that the highest increases in population numbers were seen among the over 70s.

There was a 7% fall in the number of people under 10 years of age, and a 4% fall in the number of people aged 25 to 39.

The number of people with dual Irish citizenship was 170,597, which represents a 63% increase from 2016.

One in five of the population said they were born outside of Ireland and nearly 750,000 people indicated they could speak a language other than Irish or English.

There was a drop from 87% to 83% in the proportion of people who reported their health was good or very good since 2016.

Around a third of all workers, or 747,961 people, worked from home for at least some part of their week.

The census was carried out on Sunday April 3.

(Source – Donegal Democrat / Donegal Live – National News – Staff Reporter – 30/05/2023)

Here’s What Census 2022 Showed About Donegal’s Population

A changing Donegal was reflected in Census 2022, although a large percentage of the county still identify as Roman Catholic while over 15,000 people said they worked from home.

Donegal’s population showed a small increase with a large percentage – higher than the national average – of the county identifying as being Roman Catholic.

Census 2022 was the 26th census held since 1841 and counted the number of people present in Ireland on Sunday, April 3, 2022.

On Census night, the population of Ireland was 5,149,139, an increase of 387,274 people since April 2016 This is the first time since the 1840s that Ireland’s population is over 5 million.

The figures were released on Tuesday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Donegal showed one of the smallest increases in population since 2016, rising by five per cent with 166,321 people living in the county.

The average age of the population in Donegal was 40.1, up from 36.7 in 2011 and from 38.5 in Census 2016.

Donegal still has a high portion of its population identifying as Roman Catholics, accounting for 76.6 per cent of the population.

Nationally, the total number of Roman Catholics fell by 180,783, dropping to 69 per cent of the country.

In Donegal, 8.1 per cent of the population recorded no religion.

Donegal’s average household size decreased to an average of 2.66 – higher than the European average of 2.20 and up from 2.69 in Census 2016. Donegal’s was one of the largest decreases in the last six years.

Age dependency – a ratio calculated by comparing the proportion of people both under 15 and over 64 years with the working age population – rose to 61.6 from 60.5 in the previous census.

Just shy of 50 per cent of the population in Donegal who were aged 15 and over – 49.6 per cent – were married with 38.4 per cent recorded as being single, 6.2 per cent separated or divorced and 5.8 per cent were widowed.

A total of 6.4 per cent of the Donegal population identified as unpaid carers with 22.9 per cent recording that they were experiencing a long-lasting condition or difficulty.

The census unemployment rate declined in every county between 2016 and 2022. In Donegal the rate fell to 10.6 per cent from 18 per cent at the last census having stood as high as 26.2 per cent in 2011.

Donegal had, alongside May, the lowest rate of labour force participation, at 57 per cent, among people aged 15 and over.

Of those working in Donegal, a total of 15,350 said they worked from home while 45,357 said they never worked from home. Some 7,270 participants in the county did not record whether they worked remotely.

A fifth of the Irish speakers in Donegal spoke the language ‘very well’ the highest percentage at county level recorded in the State.

There were 45.9 per cent of the Irish speaking population said they spoke the language ‘not well’.

A total of 2,822 permanent private homes in Donegal now have solar renewable energy, a figure that represents 4.6 per cent of such dwellings in the county.

There are 7,777 of the 61,575 permanent private households in Donegal that do not have internet connectivity.

A total of 46,882 have broadband connectivity – up from 36,127 in 2016 – with a further 2,830 listed as having ‘other internet connectivity’.

There are now 76.1 per cent of the private homes in Donegal connected to the internet, up from 62 per cent in Census 2016.

(Source – Donegal Democrat / Donegal Live – National News – Chris Mc Nulty – 30/05/2023)

Agriculture, Forestry And Fisheries Workers Down 8%

The number of people working in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector stood at 82,228 last year, according to initial results from Census 2022.

The data published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that figure is down by almost 8% compared to Census 2016 when 89,116 people were employed in the industry.

It also marks a decrease of 10% on Census 2011 when 91,526 worked in these sectors.

Census

The CSO said that the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector continues to have a large proportion of male workers.

Census 2022 shows that 87.2% of workers in the industry were male (71,679), while 12.8% were female (10,549).

The data also reveals that 20% of workers in the agriculture, forestry and fisheries industry were aged 65 and over. 30% of the workers in the sector were under the age of 45.

The largest age cohort in the sector was from 55-64 with 27% or 22,331 workers.

The census data shows that there were 2.3 million people at work in April 2022, 87% of whom were employees. The number of self-employed workers fell since 2016 and accounted for 13% of workers in 2022.

The number of self-employed workers in the skilled agricultural and related trades area was down 13% to just under 56,500 workers. The CSO said that this was driven mainly by a drop in the number of farmers.

The sector with the most workers employed in 2022 was the wholesale and retail trade with just under 277,000 workers, up by 4% since 2016.

The number of people working in the construction industry stood at nearly 135,000, up 32% since 2016.

Census 2022 also marked the first time in 171 years that Ireland’s population exceeded the five million threshold.

There were 5,149,139 people in the State on April 3, 2022, an 8% increase since April 2016. Every county recorded population growth between 2016 and 2022. 

The average age of the population increased from 37.4 in 2016 to 38.8 in 2022, compared with 36.1 in 2011.

Almost 80% of households had a broadband internet connection in 2022 up from 71% in 2016 and 64% in 2011.

Nearly a quarter of households reported that they used renewable energy sources.

(Source – Agriland – Aisling O Brien – 31/05/2023)