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.
It is the first time in 171 years that Ireland's population exceeded the five million threshold. There were 5,149,139 people in the State on Sunday, 03 April 2022, an 8% increase since April 2016.
The average age of the population increased from 37.4 in 2016 to 38.8 in 2022.
The number of people with dual Irish citizenship was 170,597 which represents a 63% increase from 2016.
There was a drop from 87% to 83% in the proportion of people who reported their health was good or very good since 2016.
Approximately a third of all workers (747,961 people) worked from home for at least some part of their week.
The proportion of the population who identified Roman Catholic as their religion fell from 79% in 2016 to 69% in 2022.
More than 700,000 people indicated that they undertook voluntary work, and of those, nearly 300,000 people volunteered in a sporting organisation.
Almost 80% of households had a broadband internet connection in 2022, up from 71% in 2016.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (30 May 2023) released Census 2022 Summary Results, which details the population changes in the six years since April 2016. The results provide information on a variety of topics including population by age and sex, marital status, citizenship, Irish language, health, carers, foreign languages, religion, and employment.
Commenting on the release, Cormac Halpin, Senior Statistician in the Census Division, said:
"Today’s publication is based on the Census of Population taken on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022 and provides insight into Ireland’s changing society. This release includes summary analysis on a wide range of topics such as population change, health, migration, diversity, employment, education, and dwelling characteristics.
Population
The population increased by 8.1% compared with the 2016 census and the number of persons present in the country on Census night was 5,149,139. This is the first time that a census has recorded a population of more than five million people since 1851.
New Questions
Census 2022 introduced seven new questions to collect data on working from home, renewable energy sources, volunteering activities, smoke alarms, childcare, commuting, and smoking. A further ten questions that were used in Census 2016 on topics such as disability, carers, country of citizenship, level of Irish spoken, part-time working, and type of internet connection were updated or expanded.
All questions contained in Census 2022 were tested as part of a public consultation process that ran between 2017 and 2019 and were approved by Government. Further information on changes to the questions and the consultation process can be found in the Background Notes of the publication.
Smoking Tobacco Products
Looking at the data from some of the new questions in Census 2022, we can see that almost 80% of the population reported they had either never smoked (3,113,712) or given up smoking (974,145) while 13% smoked either daily or occasionally in 2022. Smoking was more prevalent among males (15%) than females (11%).
Childcare
Almost one-third of children under the age of 15 were in childcare in 2022. The most common type of childcare used was a creche or a similar facility, followed by an unpaid relative or family member. In general, younger children who were in childcare attended for more hours per week than older children.
(See the Health, Disability, Caring and Volunteering chapter for more information).
Renewable energy
Nearly a quarter (23%) of households reported they used renewable energy sources. The use of solar panels was reported by 6% of households, ranging from 3% of households in Dublin City to 11% of households in Meath.
More than 70% of the dwellings built since 2016 used at least one renewable energy source. (See the Dwelling Characteristics chapter for more information).
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 Summary Results please see the Press Release.