What does data tell us about migration to and from Ireland?

RTÉ News​

4 days ago

Analysis: Nearly 150,000 people moved to live and work in the State in the year to April 2024, a 16-year high for immigration to Ireland
Almost 150,000 people moved to Ireland in the 12 months up to April 2024, the highest number in 16 years. We spoke to Eva Leahy, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), to get a better understanding of the people who are coming to Ireland.
What do we know about the people moving to live and work here?
The CSO produces a number of different releases to gain better insights about the people who are moving to and from the country. One of our key releases on this topic is the Population and Migration Estimates series, which is usually published in late August of each year and has data which is validated up to April of that year.
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The most recent release showed that just over 149,000 people entered the State, or immigrated, in the 12 months to April 2024. This was a 16-year high and was also the third successive 12-month period where more than 100,000 people immigrated to Ireland. 30,000 of these were returning Irish citizens, 27,000 were EU citizens, 5,400 were UK citizens and almost 87,000 were citizens of other countries.
What else do we know?
Our Population and Migration Estimates release also tells us that just over half (52% or 77,200 people) of the total immigrants who came to Ireland in the 12 months to April 2024 were aged between 25 and 44 years. The age group with the lowest proportion of migrants was 65 years and over, at just 3%.
Another release, , published in July 2025, provided even more detail on this front by examining migration as defined as a minimum six-month period since arrival or departure. It echoed our other findings and found that people aged between 25 and 34 years had the largest migration flows during the almost two-year period we examined.
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It's also worth pointing out that there is a pretty equal split in terms of the numbers of men and women moving to the State. The biggest difference occurred in August, September and October 2022 when a notably higher number of females moved to Ireland, which coincided with an increase in the numbers of women seeking temporary protection due to the war in Ukraine.
Our analysis also showed that, over the eight quarters analysed, people with Irish nationality accounted for up to 2.5% of new inward migration flows per quarter, but they represented almost 67% of those returning to the country. Irish nationals also accounted for up to 61% of those emigrating in each of those quarters over the same period. Outside of people from the EU27 and the UK, people from India, Ukraine, and Brazil are most likely to move to Ireland.
What about emigration from Ireland?
On the other side of the coin, 69,000 people departed the State cin the 12 months to April 2024, which was the highest level of emigration since 2015. This consisted of almost 35,000 Irish citizens, 13,500 UK and EU27 citizens and 21,500 other citizens, including Ukranians.
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During this period there was a strong outward flow of people going to Australia. We estimated that around 10,600 people left Ireland to live in Australia in the 12 months to April 2024, up from 4,700 in 2023 (+126%). This was the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013. Additionally, 6,400 people moved to Ireland from Australia, which was down from 7,700 in 2023 (-17%).
What does all this tell us about the population of Ireland?
These releases help to paint a picture of our changing society. For instance, my colleagues Cathal Doherty and Labhaoise Barrett published the Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources 2023 (IPEADS) report in June. It uses data collected by Government departments, agencies and public bodies other than the CSO, as a way to 'count' our population. These types of interactions with the State give us an Administrative Population, which means the CSO can provide estimates of the population in the years between the collection of the national Census.
The release put the Administrative Population of Ireland in April 2023 at almost 5.45 million, of which 81% had an Irish nationality. The top five nationalities represented in the Administrative Population after Irish, were UK, Polish, Romanian, Indian and Ukrainian.
The top five nationalities represented in the Administrative Population after Irish, were UK, Polish, Romanian, Indian and Ukrainian
For the last number of years, the CSO has been testing this different methodology to be able to produce an accurate Administrative Population count, which forms the basis of IPEADS. The advantage of using administrative data to provide a population count is that it can give a more detailed demographic breakdown of our changing society. Being able to provide accurate yearly estimates of our population under such categories as size, age, sex, and nationality, will be a vital tool for the Government and policy makers as they plan for our future.
A new release on International Protection Applications will be published later in August and the Social Statistics and Coordination Unit also publish an ongoing Arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland series.