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 question on ethnic group or background was updated for Census 2022 with new response categories added including Roma, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Arab. The change to the question means that some categories are not directly comparable with the previous census results.
Census 2022 shows that, in the new categories, 94,434 people resident in Ireland identified as Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, 20,115 identified as Arab and 16,059 as Roma.
In total 3,893,056 people recorded their ethnicity as White Irish, 32,949 people identified as White Irish Traveller and 502,081 indicated that they were of Any other White background.
The number of people who identified as Black or Black Irish – African was 67,546, up 17% from 57,850 in 2016.
A further 8,699 people identified as Black or Black Irish – any other Black background, up 28% since the previous census.
An Asian or Asian Irish – Chinese ethnicity was recorded by 26,828 people, up 38%.
There were 44,944 people who identified as Asian or Asian Irish – any other Asian background.
The number of people who selected the Mixed or Other categories was 64,992, but this figure is not directly comparable with previous results due to the changes to the question.
The profile of people usually resident in the State varied by age and sex composition for different ethnic groups/backgrounds.
Over half the Roma population were either adults aged 30 to 44 years or children aged 5 to 14 years.
Just 16% of the people with an ethnic group/background of Any other White background were children aged 0 to 14 years while more than half the population in this ethnic group were adults between the ages of 25 and 49 years.
Over 40% of people identifying as Black or Black Irish – African were aged between 0 and 19 years while the ethnic group Black or Black Irish – Any other Black background had an older age profile with 53% between the ages of 20 and 44 years.
The Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group were mostly people aged 25 to 44 years (52%) with a further 26% of the population aged under 15 years.
The proportion of children under 15 years with Arab ethnicity was higher than average, at 29%.
The relationship between ethnicity and country of citizenship gives further insight into the diversity of the population.
The most common country of citizenship of the Roma population was Ireland (28%), followed by Romania (22%), Italy (10%) and Poland (9%).
The top countries of citizenship of people who identified as Any other White background were Ireland (24%), Poland (16%) and UK (13%).
The proportion of people who identified as Black or Black Irish – African and had Irish citizenship was 65% with a further 27% recording citizenship in African countries.
In the Black or Black Irish – Any other Black background ethnic group, 37% were Irish citizens and a further 28% were Brazilian citizens.
The proportion of people who identified with the Chinese ethnic group/background who were Irish citizens was 40%.
A further 54% were citizens of countries in the Other Asia category including China.
The top three categories of citizenship for people in the Arab ethnic group were Ireland (43%), Other Asia (29%) and Africa (19%).
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