On Wednesday, 24 August 2022, the Central Statistics Office released its annual Population and Migration Estimates, which use preliminary results from Census 2022 to estimate Ireland’s population in April of this year. As we (and others) noted when the preliminary census results were released in June, Census 2022 showed a population over 5 million people for the first time since 1841, with all twenty-six counties in the State experiencing a migration-related population increase since Census 2016.
The more recent, more in-depth Population and Migration Estimates reveals the scale of this population increase, with 2022 reporting the largest population increase from migration in fifteen years. The graph below uses CSO estimates from 1987 to 2022 to chart net migration over the past thirty-five years, putting the 2022 increase in recent historical perspective:
The estimates also show approximately 703,700 non-Irish nationals living in the State, accounting for 13.8% of the total population. This is a significant increase from the 2021 estimates, which reported 645,500 non-Irish nationals, accounting for 12.9% of the April 2021 population.
For more information, see:
Central Statistics Office, Population and Migration Estimates, April 2022
EMN Ireland news story, Preliminary 2022 census results show population increase from migration in all twenty-six counties
