This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
The 26th census since 1841 was carried out on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022 in accordance with the Statistics (Census of Population) Order 2020 and in order to facilitate the EU requirements arising from the implementing legislation associated with Regulation (EC) No. 763/2008 on population and housing censuses.
The census population figures in this report relate to the de facto population meaning persons who were present in the State on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022. The de facto population includes persons who do not usually live in Ireland but who were in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who usually live in Ireland but who were temporarily absent, outside of the State, on Census Night. Persons who were present in the State were enumerated and are reported at the location where they spent Census Night. This may not have been the location where they usually live.
The 26th census was originally scheduled to take place on the night of Sunday, 08 April 2021. Following advice from the CSO, the government decided in September 2020 to postpone the census for approximately one year owing to the ongoing difficulties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the purposes of census enumeration, the State was divided into 6 Census Liaison Areas, 46 Regions, 466 Field Districts and 5,100 Enumeration Areas. Census Enumerators were assigned to these Enumeration Areas and, during the five weeks before Census Night, delivered census questionnaires to all dwellings that were expected to be occupied on Sunday, 03 April 2022. Each address within an Enumeration Area was recorded as either occupied, unoccupied or not suitable for habitation.
The collection of completed questionnaires took place between Monday, 04 April and Friday, 06 May 2022.
The data in this report is based on the information handwritten on the census forms. After collection, the census forms were returned to CSO where they were scanned to capture and digitize the handwritten information. This digitized information was then processed to prepare it for publication.
The date of the census was chosen to coincide with a period when as many people as possible were at their home address and consequently the figures closely approximate the normally resident population.
The de facto measure of the population represents all persons who were present in the State on Census Night, irrespective of whether they were usually resident in the State at the time of the census.
The usually resident and present measure of the population refers to all persons who usually live in Ireland and who were present in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who were not usually resident in the State on Census Night but who were present and persons who were usually resident in the State but were outside the State on Census Night.
The usually resident and present measure is used when analysing topics such as country of citizenship and households and families.
In this publication, where the term disability is used, it refers to the experience of at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty as reported in Census 2022. Data on experiencing long-lasting conditions or difficulties was derived from answers to Questions 15 and 16 of the census questionnaire.
Question 15 was a seven-part question that asked about the experience of the following long lasting conditions: (a) blindness or a vision impairment, (b) deafness or a hearing impairment, (c) a difficulty with basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying, (d) an intellectual disability, (e) a difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating, (f) a psychological or emotional condition or a mental health issue and (g) a difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness or condition.
Respondents were required to indicate whether they experienced each of these conditions in Q15 to some extent, to a great extent or not at all.
Question 16 was a four-part question that asked whether as a result of a long-lasting condition, respondents had a difficulty doing any of the following activities: (a) dressing, bathing or getting around inside the home (self-care disability), (b) going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor’s surgery (going outside the home disability), (c) working at a job or business or attending school or college (employment disability) and (d) participating in other activities, such as leisure or using transport.
Similar to Question 15, respondents had the option to indicate they experienced each of the difficulties in Q16 a little, a lot or not at all.
Census 2022 Question 15
Census 2022 Question 16
Unlike in Census 2016, there was no filter between Q15 and Q16, meaning that all respondents were expected to answer both questions. Respondents were also instructed to answer ‘Yes’ to any of the difficulties listed in Q15 which were experienced due to old age.
For the publication of the results, three categories were created based on the response options in Q15 and Q16. These are as follows:
Long-lasting condition or difficulty experienced to any extent
Long-lasting condition or difficulty experienced to some extent
Long-lasting condition or difficulty experienced to a great extent
Respondents who ticked any of the 'Yes' boxes in Q15 or Q16 were also included in the 'disability to any extent' rate.
Respondents who ticked at least one of the boxes for 'Yes, to some extent' in Q15 or 'Yes, a little' in Q16 but did not tick any of the 'Yes to a great extent' in Q15 or 'Yes, a lot' in Q16 were used as part of the calculation of the 'Long-lasting condition or difficulty experienced to some extent' category.
Respondents who ticked at least one of the 'Yes, to a great extent' boxes in Q15 or 'Yes, a lot' boxes in Q16 were used as part of the calculation of the 'Long-lasting condition or difficulty experienced to a great extent' category.
All of the changes introduced in Q15 and Q16 in Census 2022 were agreed with key stakeholders during the Census content consultation which took place between 2017 and 2019.
More details can be found on Census 2022 Consultation on Form Content - CLOSED.
As a result of the significant changes to the questions on long-lasting conditions and difficulties, the CSO has decided not to directly compare the results from the two censuses.
Full results from Census 2016 do however remain available on Census of Population 2016 – Profile 9 Health, Disability and Carers.
The census labour force participation rate is calculated as the proportion of persons aged 15 and over who are economically active (i.e. working, looking for their first regular job or unemployed) in the entire population over the age of 15.
The results of the Labour Force Survey (LFS) provide the basis for the official series of quarterly labour force estimates. The labour force and its constituent figures shown in this report are directly based on the census. Users should be aware that information derived from identical questions in the census and LFS for the same year may show appreciable differences. The main categories affected are the constituents of the question on principal economic status and the employment estimates classified by industry and occupation.
The main reasons for the differences are:
• The LFS uses the International Labour Organisation (ILO) classification, which has a much wider range of questions on the labour force and which may have a bearing on the responses received to individual questions. Under the ILO criteria, employment, unemployment and inactive population are defined as follows:
In employment: Persons who worked in the week before the survey for one hour or more for payment or profit, including work on the family farm or business and all persons who had a job but were not at work because of illness, holidays etc in the week.
Unemployed: Persons who, in the week before the survey, were without work and available for work within the next two weeks, and had taken specific steps, in the preceding four weeks, to find work.
Inactive population (not in labour force): All other persons.
• The census form is completed by a responsible adult in each household throughout the State in respect of everyone present in the household on Census Night while the LFS is collected by in person and telephone-based survey interviews
• The census relates to all persons present in the State (including visitors from abroad) at the time of the census while the LFS covers persons usually resident in Ireland
• The census is a complete enumeration while the LFS is a sample survey. The chief difference resulting from this is that the census records an unemployment rate (based on Principal Economic Status) of 8 per cent, compared with the official rate (based on ILO criteria) of 4.6 per cent for Quarter 1 of 2022. Notwithstanding these differences, the main strength of the census-based data on employment and unemployment is the provision of data for small geographic areas, analysis on the comparisons between areas, the provision of data on unemployment blackspots, and other analysis across multiple variables such as marital status, detailed country of citizenship, etc.
The entire population is also classified into one of the following social class groups (introduced in 1996) which are defined on the basis of occupation:
| 1 | Professional workers |
| 2 | Managerial and technical |
| 3 | Non-manual |
| 4 | Skilled manual |
| 5 | Semi-skilled |
| 6 | Unskilled |
| 7 | All others gainfully occupied and unknown |
The occupations included in each of these groups have been selected in such a way as to bring together, as far as possible, people with similar levels of occupational skill. In determining social class, no account is taken of the differences between individuals on the basis of other characteristics such as education. Accordingly, social class ranks occupations by the level of skill required on a social class scale, ranging from 1 (highest) to 7 (lowest). This scale combines occupations into six groups by occupation and employment status following procedures similar to those outlined above for the allocation of socio-economic group. A residual category 'All others gainfully occupied and unknown' is used where no precise allocation is possible.
A break in the time series has occurred for social class between Census 2022 and previous census results. In 2022, the social class framework was rebased to incorporate the SOC2010 classification unlike previous census results published. It was possible to rebase social class using a derivation matrix developed by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) in conjunction with the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Although the categories remain the same, it is important to note the break in time series when comparing historical tables to Census 2022 results.
Explore census data from county level to neighbourhood (Small Area) level
