The Government needs to do a “better job” in preparing for population growth, the Taoiseach has said.
Almost 150,000 people immigrated to Ireland in the 12 months to April – the highest number in 17 years.
It was the third successive 12-month period where more than 100,000 people moved to Ireland.
The latest data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that of these, 30,000 were Irish citizens returning home, 27,000 were other EU citizens, and 5,400 were UK citizens.
In the year to April 2024, the population of Ireland saw the largest 12-month increase since 2008https://t.co/nQgUEHqYdY#CSOIreland #Ireland #Population #PopulationEstimates #Migration #MigrationEstimates@citizensinfo @davidmurphyRTE @IrelandAMVMTV @irishtv @LatedebateRTE pic.twitter.com/9g9RLaoGPH
Advertisement— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) August 27, 2024
The remaining 86,800 immigrants were citizens of other countries, including Ukraine.
The new figures show that the population in Ireland rose by 98,700 – the largest 12-month increase since 2008.
The number of immigrants in the 12 months up to April 2024 was the highest since 2007.
The population of the country is now estimated to be around 5.38 million.
Speaking in Paris on Tuesday, Taoiseach Simon Harris said inward migration is a “good thing” but warned there was a need to build various systems to respond to the population growth.
“There’s no doubt the Government that I lead will now need to do a better job in terms of forward planning, preparing for population growth, wondering what that means for public services, what that means for investment, what that means for staffing levels.
“But we need to be very clear that actually the growth that we’re seeing in our population, much of that growth are actually people coming to assist our country – either Irish people coming back home, maybe after a number of years abroad, maybe coming back home to a job or to have a family or to care for a relative, and also people coming to Ireland to work in job vacancies that haven’t been able to be filled within Ireland.”
The figures show that 69,000 people left the country in the 12 months to April 2024, compared with 64,000 in the same period of 2023. This is the highest emigration total since 2015.
There was a natural increase of 19,400 people in the country, comprised of 54,200 births and 34,800 deaths.
There was also a sharp rise in the number of people leaving Ireland to move to Australia, with an estimated 10,600 people going there, up 4,700 from the previous year, representing a 126 per cent increase.
The Population and Migration Estimates shows that this is the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013.
Additionally, 6,400 people moved to Ireland from Australia, down from 7,700 in 2023.
The UK also saw strong migration flows in the year to April 2024. Estimates have shown that 15,200 people left Ireland to live in the UK, up from 14,600 in 2023 and 20,500 people moved to Ireland from the UK, up from 18,400 in 2023.
Eva Leahy, statistician in population estimates and projections at the CSO, said: “Ireland’s population was estimated to be 5.38 million, rising by 98,700 people in the year to April 2024.
“This was the largest 12-month population increase in 16 years since 2008 when the population rose by 109,200.
“The number of immigrants, or those entering the State, in the year to April 2024 was estimated to be 149,200, while the number of emigrants, or those leaving the State, over the same period was estimated at 69,900.
“These combined flows gave positive net migration (more people having arrived than left), of 79,300 in the year to April 2024, compared with 77,600 in the previous year.”
There were 833,300 people living in Ireland aged 65 and over in April 2024.
Those aged 65 and over showed an increase in population share between 2018 and 2024, increasing from 13.8 per cent to 15.5 per cent of the total, a volume increase of 156,800 people.
There were more than a million people living in Ireland aged 0-14 in April 2024.
This age group had a fall in population share between 2018 and 2024, dropping from 20.8 per cent to 18.8 per cent of the total population, a decrease of 4,100.
Looking at where people reside, the proportion of the population living in Dublin has risen from 28.1 per cent of the total in 2018 to 28.5 per cent of the total in 2024 and now stands at 1,534,900 people.
