Ireland has recorded its largest jump in population since 2008, figures show.
A combination of a natural increase, immigration and migration gave a population growth of 88,800 in the year to April 2022.
This was the largest gain since 2008 when the population increased by 109,200, according to figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The figures show 120,700 immigrants arrived in Ireland in the 12 months – a 15-year-high.
Of those, 28,900 were returning Irish nationals, 24,300 were other EU nationals and 4,500 were UK nationals.
The remaining 63,000 were other nationals including almost 28,000 Ukrainians by the end of April. The number of Ukrainians arriving into Ireland has since risen to 47,962 by August 7th, according to CSO’s figures.
The number of immigrants is estimated to have increased by just above 85 per cent to 120,700 from 65,200 compared with 2021.
The number of emigrants also increased over the same period to 59,600 from 54,000.
This put positive net migration at 61,100 in the year to April, compared with 11,200 the previous year – a more than five-fold increase.
There were 60,700 births and 33,000 deaths in the year to April, giving a natural increase of 27,700.
This is a similar level to the 2020 population estimates.
Cathal Doherty, statistician in Population Estimates and Projections, said: “Ireland’s population was estimated to be 5.10 million, increasing by 88,800 people, in the year to April 2022.
“This was the largest 12-month population increase since 2008 when the population increased by 109,200.”
The figures also show there were 768,900 people living in Ireland aged 65 and over in April.
The 65-plus group’s population share increased from 13.3 per cent to 15.1 per cent between 2016 and 2022, with a volume increase of 139,100 people.
Largest 12-month increase in population since 2008https://t.co/0OWskWPqD9#CSOIreland #Ireland #Population #PopulationEstimates #Migration #MigrationEstimates pic.twitter.com/jXQoANSPBU
— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) August 24, 2022
The proportion of the population living in Dublin has increased from 27.6 per cent of the total in 2011 to 28.4 per cent, and is now at 1,451,000.
The resident population stands at 5,100,200 people.
The trend in population change closely coincides with the trend in net migration between 1987 and 2022.
There were 63,000 immigrants who were “rest of world” nationals in the year to April, with Ukrainian nationals significantly impacting the inflow in 2022.
There were 18,500 emigrants who were “rest of world” nationals, meaning just under 44,500 more arrived than the number who left.
Just under half of the total immigrants and less than half of the total emigrants were aged between 25 and 44.
The lowest proportion of migrants were in the 65 years and over age group, with less than 4 per cent of immigrants and fewer than 2 per cent of emigrants.
