Press Statement

Preasráiteas

20 August 2020

Go to release: Population and Migration Estimates April 2020

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (20 August 2020) publishes the annual Population and Migration Estimates for April 2020.

Commenting on the results, James Hegarty, Statistician said: 'The combined effect of positive net migration and natural increase resulted in population growth of 55,900 (+1.1%) in the year to April 2020, compared to an increase of 64,500 (+1.3%) in the year to April 2019. This annual increase brings the population estimate to 4.98 million in April 2020. 

The number of immigrants to the State in the year to April 2020 is estimated to be 85,400, while the number of emigrants from the State over the same period is estimated at 56,500. These flows resulted in net inward migration for Ireland in the year to April 2020 of 28,900, a reduction of 4,800 (-14.2%) on the previous year.

The number of births was 58,300 while the number of deaths was 31,200, resulting in a natural increase of 27,100 in the year to April 2020. This is the lowest level of natural increase recorded since the 2001 population estimates. 

Irish nationals accounted for 28,900 (33.8%) of the 85,400 immigrants to Ireland, this is the highest number of returning Irish nationals since 2007.  Of the 56,500 emigrants from Ireland 28,300 (50.1%) were estimated to be Irish nationals.  Consequently, net inward migration of Irish nationals in the year to April 2020 was just over 500. This represents an increase of 2,600 on the year to April 2019 when net outward migration of Irish nationals was estimated to be -2,100.

In the year to April 2020, 56,500 non-Irish nationals arrived to live in Ireland and 28,200 non-Irish nationals emigrated abroad. Therefore, net inward migration among non-Irish nationals remained strong but decreased to 28,300 in 2020 from 35,800 in 2019 (-20.9%).  These inflows resulted in the number of non-Irish nationals living in Ireland increasing from 622,700 persons in April 2019 to 644,400 persons in April 2020, accounting for 12.9% of the total population.

The Dublin region experienced the strongest growth in the year increasing its population by 22,100 persons (+1.6%).  Consequently, the population of Dublin in April 2020 was estimated to be almost 1.42 million persons, equating to 28.5% of the total population.

The population aged 65 and over increased by 23,900 (+3.4%) to 720,100 in the year to April 2020, this age group has increased by 90,200 persons (+14.3%) since 2016.  In April 2020, persons aged 65 and over accounted for 14.5% of the total population.'

Further commenting on the data, James Hegarty, Statistician, said:

'It should be noted that this release covers the 12 months to April 2020. Therefore, as much of the reference period predates the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact on today’s figures is limited and the majority of the impact can be expected to be seen in the 12 months to April 2021.'

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