Non-Irish citizens now make up 12% of the population

Kenneth Fox

Non-Irish citizens now for 12 per cent of the population, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

It come as the CSO have released Census 2022 details on Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers & Religion.

In the year leading up to the Census almost 10,000 people came to Ireland from India, while over 5,000 arrived from Brazil.

UK citizens had the oldest average age among non-Irish citizens at 50 years.

The average age of Irish citizens was 39 years, while Ukrainian citizens had the youngest average age amongst non-Irish citizens at 25 years.

There were 4,247 non-Irish citizens who were living in Ukraine in the year prior to Census 2022 reflecting the impact of the Ukrainian crisis.

This number may appear lower than expected because many Ukrainians did not identify as usual residents of the State and would therefore be excluded from this figure.

In 2021, 10,593 Indian citizens arrived in Ireland, an increase of 315 per cent compared with the year leading up to Census 2016.

In the same year, 4,689 Brazilian citizens arrived in Ireland, an increase of 2 per cent compared with the year leading up to Census 2016.

A total of 4,174 Spanish citizens arrived in Ireland in 2021, an increase of 43 per cent compared with the year leading up to Census 2016.

There were five European Union countries in the top 10, including Romania, , Italy and Poland.

Irish Travellers

The number of Irish Travellers living in the State and counted in Census 2022 was 32,949, an increase of 6 per cent from 30,987 in the 2016 census.

Irish Travellers make up less than 1 per cent of the population so, for comparison purposes, it can be helpful to use rates per 1,000 of the population.

This shows that in Census 2022, six out of 1,000 people in the State were Irish Travellers. The proportion of Irish Travellers in the population varied from county to county.

In Galway City, 21 out of every 1,000 people were Irish Travellers, in Longford, the rate was 20 per 1,000 of the population and in Offaly, it was 14 per 1,000.

The Irish Traveller population increased in most counties, the largest rise being recorded in Offaly, up 30 per cent to 1,174.

The Traveller population also increased by more than 200 in Cork (up 11 per cent to 2,376), Fingal (up 17 per cent to 1,545) and Tipperary (up 17 per cent to 1,434).

Census 2022 also 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 per cent from 57,850 in 2016.

A further 8,699 people identified as Black or Black Irish – any other Black background, up 28 per cent since the previous census.

An Asian or Asian Irish – Chinese ethnicity was recorded by 26,828 people, up 38 per cent.

There were 44,944 people who identified as Asian or Asian Irish – any other Asian background.