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.
There were almost 632,000 non-Irish citizens living in Ireland in Census 2022, which was 12% of the population.
Almost 313,000, or nearly half, were citizens of European Union (EU) countries, and over 83,000 were UK citizens.
In the year preceding the census, over 89,500 people moved to Ireland.
Almost 10,000 of the people who moved to Ireland in the year preceding Census 2022 came from India while over 5,000 came from Brazil.
Just under 3.9 million or 77% of people identified their ethnic group or background as White Irish.
The next largest ethnic group was Any Other White background at 10%, followed by Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi at 2%, and Black or Black Irish at 1%.
The number of usually resident Irish Travellers increased by 6% to 32,949. Looking at the overall population, 15% were aged 65 years and over compared with just 5% of Irish Travellers.
Over 736,000 people or 14% of the population living in Ireland reported they had no religion, an increase of 63% from Census 2016.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 October 2023) released Census 2022 Profile 5 Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion. This is the fifth in a series of eight thematic profiles which will provide detailed results on specific areas of Census 2022. Today’s publication looks at the diversity of the population in Ireland, including country of citizenship, ethnic group or background, and languages spoken. Recent migration in the year leading up to the census, Irish Travellers and the topic of religion are also covered in the publication.
Commenting on the results, Brendan Murphy, Statistician in the Census Division, said:
“Profile 5 expands on the information provided in the Migration and Diversity chapter of the Summary Results released in May, covering topics including: citizenship, ethnic group/background, and the religion of the population usually resident and present in the State, as well as patterns of immigration in the year leading up to the census. The chapter on Irish Travellers captures important data and provides demographics similar to the ones published in the 2016 Profile 8 Irish Travellers, Ethnicity and Religion. For Census 2022, the nationality question was changed to country of citizenship and new categories were added to the question on ethnic group/background.
Country of Citizenship
In April 2022, there were 631,785 non-Irish citizens living in Ireland, accounting for 12% of the usually resident and present population. This was an increase from 11% of the population in Census 2016. Census 2022 results show that the number of UK citizens residing in the State continued to decline, down by more than 19% from 103,113 in 2016, following a fall of 8% between 2011 and 2016. Table F5061 also shows that a noticeable growth was recorded in the number of citizens from European countries outside of the EU (131%) to more than 25,000, but this was largely driven by the Ukrainian crisis. Citizens of Asian countries made up some 16% of the non-Irish population, up 98% since 2016.
Immigration
Of the 89,512 people who immigrated in the year leading up to the 2022 census, more than 22,000 were Irish citizens. This was a decrease of 21% from Census 2016 despite an increase of 9% in the number of people who came to live in the State in the year prior to Census 2022. The most common countries of origin for Irish citizens were the UK, Australia, and USA, while India, Brazil, and Spain were the top three countries of origin for non-Irish citizens coming to live in the State in the year to Census 2022. Regarding home ownership and rent for immigrating people, Tables F5062 and F5063 show that 80% of households headed by a non-Irish citizen who came to live in the State in the year prior to the census were renting their home from a private landlord. The average weekly rent was €372. This compares with under 42% of private rentals with an average weekly rent of €360 where the head of the household was Irish.
Ethnic Group/Background
The question on ethnic group/background was updated for Census 2022 with new categories added including Roma, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, and Arab. The results show that 94,434 people resident in the State identified as Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, 20,115 identified as Arab, and 16,059 as Roma. Between 2016 and 2022, there was a 17% increase in the number of people who identified as Black or Black Irish – African and a 28% growth in the number of people who identified as Black or Black Irish – any other Black background. Looking at the data in Table F5066, it is apparent that the most common country of citizenship of the Roma population was Ireland at 28%, followed by Romania, 22%. People in the Arab ethnic group were mainly citizens of Ireland (43%), or countries in Other – Asia (29%) and Africa (19%).
Irish Travellers
The number of Irish Travellers living in the State and counted in Census 2022 was 32,949, up 6% from 30,987 in Census 2016. The average age of Irish Travellers was 27 years compared with 39 years for the total population. Children under the age of 15 made up 36% of this ethnic group/background compared with 20% of the total population. At a national level, 15% of the population was aged 65 years and over while for Irish Travellers, this was just 5%. The data in Table F5067 shows that 26% of all Irish Travellers reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent. The equivalent proportion for the total population living in the State was 22%. The Irish Traveller population increased in most counties, the largest rise being recorded in Offaly (30%). The largest drop was in Longford (13%).
Religion
Census 2022 results show that the percentage of the population who identified as Roman Catholic fell from 79% in 2016 to 69% in 2022, while the number of people with no religion increased by 284,269 and stood at 736,210, or more than 14% of the total population. Looking at age groups in Table F5071, among pre-school aged children (0 to 4 years), 65% were Roman Catholic, 16% had no religion and 3% were Muslim. People aged 25 to 29 years were less likely to be Roman Catholic (53%) than other age groups. This is also the age cohort with the highest proportion of people with no religion (26%) and the highest proportion of Hindus (over 2%). Religions varied by citizenship, with 70% of Polish citizens being Roman Catholic, more than 41% of UK citizens having no religion, almost half of Indian citizens were Hindu and nearly 66% of Romanians were Orthodox.
Appreciation
The publication of Census 2022 results could not have been achieved without the overwhelmingly positive response from the public and we thank everyone who completed their census form on 03 April 2022. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the Census 2022 campaign culminating in today’s successful publication of the results.”
For more commentary on the Census 2022 Profile 5 Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion results, please see the Press Release.