Inside the wellbeing and relationships of Ireland's 25-year-olds

RTÉ News​

28-04-2025

Analysis: Are Ireland's 25-year-olds close with their parents and do they have people they can rely on? Here's what CSO data tells us
We spoke to Dr Katie O'Farrell, a Senior Statistician with the Central Statistics Office (CSO), who recently produced the CSO's Growing Up in Ireland release which captured the views of a group of people who were born in 1998 about life in Ireland. Here she provides a snapshot of what we learned about the wellbeing of 25-years-olds from that survey, and how they feel about their relationships with family, friends, or romantic partners.
For this group of 25-year-olds, what does their family life look like?
Overall, it was interesting to see that this group of young people say they have maintained very strong family ties, close friendships, and were involved in romantic relationships.
The quality of their relationship with their mother and father was mainly positive, with very few of our group of 25-year-olds saying their relationship with a parent had disimproved since they were previously interviewed at age 20.
From CSO Ireland, Main results from the Growing Up in Ireland Cohort '98 at age 25
The pattern was broadly similar whether respondents were still living in the family home or had moved out. Only a very small number were living outside both the parental home and the region they had lived in when they were nine years old, which gives an indication of the close relationship and strong ties between adult children and their parents in Ireland.
You mentioned friendships – do young adults have people they can rely on?
We asked our respondents who they could confide in with issues and feelings, and both men and women said they would go to a friend, a partner, or their mother with personal issues. Most of the group said some of their friends were close friends, however, nearly 6% of respondents said they had no close friends.
When it comes to intimate relationships, almost 60% of this group were in a romantic relationship and of those, just over a quarter were living with their partner.
There's been an increased focus on mental health in the last few years, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. How are 25-year-olds doing?
When we look at the area of mental health, we asked if this group were ever diagnosed with depression or anxiety by a medical professional. It is certainly noteworthy that the rates of diagnoses have increased since we met this same group at age 20, with 25% saying they had been diagnosed with depression or anxiety by the age of 25.
While rates of diagnoses have risen over time for both men and women, the gap between the sexes in terms of a diagnosis of depression or anxiety has also increased. More than three in ten (31.5%) women reported a depression or anxiety diagnosis compared with less than two in ten (18.3%) men.
The gap was also evident in terms of self-esteem, with the women in our group of 25-year-olds reporting low self-esteem (23.5%) while for men it was 18.2%. When asked about stress, nearly 22% of women reported moderate or higher levels of stress, compared with 15.3% of men who reported the same levels.
From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, Many young people in Ireland looking for a way to socialise without alcohol
Are there any other areas of well-being where we see a difference across the sexes?
Yes, in addition to mental health, participation in exercise and alcohol use also differed by sex. Looking at exercise, we saw that the women in our group were taking part in vigorous exercise less often than men. More than two-thirds of men (67.9%) reported they had done at least 30 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise – defined as causing a large increase in the heart rate and breathing - in the week before completing the survey. This compares with less than half (49.2%) of women who had exercised vigorously in the week before completing the survey.
We also observed different patterns when we looked at alcohol use with the men in our group more at risk than women.
What do the patterns of alcohol use look like for 25-year-old men?
We used a measure from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to assess levels of drinking in our respondents. When we spoke to this group at age 20 just over two in five of our respondents reported levels of drinking that could be categorised as risky or hazardous.
At age 25, this figure had decreased slightly to just under two in five respondents reporting this level of drinking. Men (44.5%) recorded a risky or hazardous level of drinking more frequently than women (33.6%), with men educated to degree level or higher most at risk of hazardous consumption of alcohol at 51.2%.
Overall, though, most 25-year-olds said they were in excellent (22.7%) or very good (42.1%) general health at the time of the survey; and out of a maximum score of 10, life satisfaction for this group was on average 6.5.