Report highlights contrasting situation across the nine equality grounds

Equality in Ireland 2007, published by the CSO today, examines the demographic and economic situation of people in Ireland across the nine equality grounds1. The report was prepared to mark the Year of Equal Opportunities.

Key findings of the report include:

The total population in 2006 was 4.2 million persons. Just over one-fifth of the population was aged 0-14 (20.4%), a further 14.9% were aged 15-24, 31.7% were aged 25-44, 21.9% were aged 45-64 and 11% were aged 65 and over.

In the 25-44 age group, 70.4% of women and 87% of men were in employment. Comparative employment figures in the same age group for other grounds were 45% of people with a disability, 85.7% of Other EU nationals (excluding Ireland and the UK), 44.2% of persons with Black ethnicity, and 15.8% of Irish Travellers.

While women accounted for 50% of the total population, they represented 90.9% of lone parents and 62.3% of carers. 32.8% of women aged 25 and over had attained third level education compared to 28.7% of men. The number of males per 100 females was reasonably in balance between the ages of 0-64 but fell to 84 in the 65-84 age group and to 45 in the 85 and over age group.

43.1% of the population aged 15 and over were single, 46.4% were married, 4.9% were separated or divorced, and 5.6% were widowed. Almost four in five of all widowed persons (78.3%) were women reflecting the longer life expectancy of women. The proportion of separated/divorced persons increased to 9.7% in the 45-64 age category.

The employment rate for women aged 20-44 with dependant children varied from 57.2% when the youngest child was under 4 years to 55.3% when the youngest child was aged 4-5 and then rose to 62.7% when the youngest child was aged 6-17. The comparable rates for men were more even at around 91% irrespective of the age of the child. 90.9% of lone
parents with a child aged under 18 were women. 53.1% of female lone parents were employed compared to 59.0% of other female parents. 62.3% of carers were women, and 92.9% were of Irish nationality.

86.8% of the population defined themselves as Roman Catholic in Census 2006. People expressing no religious affiliation comprised 6.1% of the population. Irish Travellers reported the highest proportion of Roman Catholics at 95.1%.

The proportion of the population aged under 15 decreased from 30.3% in 1981 to 20.4% in 2006. The percentage of the population aged 65 and over has remained more stable, increasing from 10.7% in 1981 to 11% in 2006. The proportion of persons in non-family private households increased with age rising from 16.9% for the 25-64 age group to 33.5% of persons aged 65-84 to 50.8% of persons aged 85 and over.

9.3% of the population had a disability in 2006. 61.8% of women aged 85 and over had a disability. In the 0-24 age group, males (4.9%) had a higher rate than the 3.4% rate for females. 45% of people aged 25-44 with a disability were employed compared to 78.8% of the population aged 25-44. The corresponding figures for third level education were 28.3% for persons with a disability and 42.9% for the population in that age group.

88.8% of the population were Irish nationals, 2.7% were from the UK, 3.9% were from other EU countries and 3.5% were from outside the EU. 96.5% of the population had a White ethnic background. People with a non-Irish white ethnic background (mainly British, Polish, etc.) were predominantly in the 25-44 age group (50.5%). People with Black ethnic
backgrounds were concentrated in the 0-14 (40.9%) and 25-44 (44.5%) age groups.

There were 22,400 members of the Irish Traveller community, or just over 0.5% of the population. There was a very high proportion of Irish Travellers in the 0-14 age group (41.4%), this was twice the overall population rate of 20.4%.

1 The nine grounds of unlawful discrimination named in equality legislation are: Gender, marital status, family status, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, religious belief and membership of the Traveller community.

Editor's note

Equality in Ireland, 2007 is available on the CSO web site (www.cso.ie)

The report may be purchased from:

The Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork
Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2
or through any bookseller.

Price: €5

For further information: contact Gerry Brady (01 498 4201) or Mark Manto (01 498 4204).

Central Statistics Office

27 November 2007

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