Press Statement

Preasráiteas

01 May 2018

Waste sent to landfill in Ireland dropped by 70% between 2004 and 2014

Go to release: Measuring Ireland's Progress 2016

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (1 May 2018) published Measuring Ireland's Progress 2016. Commenting on the report, Helen Cahill Statistician, said: "The quantity of waste landfilled in Ireland dropped by 70% between 2004 to 2014, from 1,818.5 to 536.5 thousand tonnes.

Just over a fifth (20.5%) of municipal waste was landfilled in Ireland in 2014, below the EU average of 24.4%. The proportion sent to landfill varies widely in EU states, from less than 1% in Sweden and Belgium, (where recycling and incineration rates are high), to over 80% in Malta and Greece.

The quantity of municipal waste generated per person in Ireland decreased by a quarter over the 2004 to 2014 period, from 750kg to 564kg.

Just under one in six (15.9%) young people aged 18-24 in Ireland in 2016 was neither in employment nor in education and training, (the NEET rate). The EU average NEET rate was 15.2% and varied from a low of 6.1% in the Netherlands to 26% in Italy.

Ireland had the highest proportion of Mathematics, Science and Technology (STEM) graduates in the EU in 2015. The proportion of graduates in these disciplines was 31.5 per 1,000 of the population aged 20-29 in Ireland, while the EU average was 19.1.

Healthy life years at birth for females in Ireland was 67.9 years in 2015, the third highest rate in the EU and 4.6 years above the EU average. The equivalent male rate in Ireland in 2015 was 66.6 years, the third highest rate in the EU and 4 years higher than the EU average.

Irish males can expect to spend about 16% of their life expectancy in poor health, the fourth lowest rate in the EU. At the upper end of the scale, males in Austria, Estonia, Latvia, Croatia, Portugal and Slovakia can anticipate spending about a quarter of their life expectancy in poor health. Females in Ireland can expect to spend about 19% of their life expectancy in poor health, the fourth lowest rate in the EU.  In Finland and Portugal females can expect to spend about a third of their life in poor health.

There were 436 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in Ireland in 2015, which was low by EU standards. Luxembourg had the highest number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants at 661 while Romania had the lowest at 261."

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