Welcome to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) publication “Brexit: Ireland and the UK in numbers”. Following the vote by the electorate in the United Kingdom (UK) to leave the European Union (EU) in June 2016, the CSO decided to compile a suite of aggregate tables which describes the relationship between Ireland and the UK in numbers. A paper report with 24 tables was published by the CSO on 7 December 2016. This electronic report contains 41 tables covering the main areas for which we have data on our engagement with the UK and marks the second step in this dissemination process. It is also planned to publish on the CSO website in early 2017 a dedicated page which will track indicators on our relationship with the UK. This page will be similar to the page on the CSO website “Key economic indicators” and will be created using data in the CSO databank and thus will always be up to date. I hope that you find the data we have presented in this report to be useful and we welcome any feedback on the contents.
Pádraig Dalton,
Director General
People: There were 112,259 United Kingdom nationals usually resident and present in the State in 2011, when the total population was 4,525,281. Thus UK nationals comprised 2.5% of the population of Ireland in 2011. UK nationals are more likely to live in a detached house than the general population – 53.8% of UK nationals lived in a detached house in 2011 compared with 45% of the general population. However, UK nationals are less likely to own their home than the general population with 63.7% of UK nationals owning their home compared with 70.3% of the total population.
UK nationals are more likely to be older than the general population. The average age of a person in Ireland in 2011 with UK nationality was 42.6 years while the average age of the general population was lower at 36.1 years. In 2011, 13.4% of UK nationals in Ireland were unemployed compared with 9.3% of the total population. UK nationals are less likely to be in the category “Retired and other” than the general population, with 27.8% of UK nationals in this grouping compared with 35.2% of the general population.
There were 8,295 residents from Ireland in 2011 who commuted across the border with Northern Ireland to work or study while 6,456 residents from Northern Ireland commuted across the border to work or study in Ireland.
Of the 79,300 immigrants who arrived in Ireland in 2016, 13,800 (17%) arrived from the UK. It is estimated that the number of immigrants who arrived in Ireland in 2016 and were UK nationals was 4,500. There were 76,200 emigrants from Ireland in 2016 and 16,600, or just over a fifth (21.8%) went to live in the UK. The number of UK nationals who left Ireland in 2016 is estimated to be 2,600.
Of the 1,976,500 people in Ireland aged 15 years and over who were in employment at the start of 2016, 54,500 (or 2.8%) of these were UK nationals. There were 179,500 people unemployed at the start of 2016 and 6,300 were UK nationals.
There were 173,649 full time third level students studying in Ireland in 2014/2015 and nearly 92% were Irish nationals while 1% were from the United Kingdom. Of the 174,407 Irish students studying full time at third level in 2014/2015, 159,381 (91.4%) were studying in Ireland while 11,448 (6.6%) were studying in the UK.
Business: Flows of direct investment into Ireland were €169.8bn in 2015 and the United Kingdom had a disinvestment of €4.1bn. Direct investment flows abroad from Ireland were €149.9bn in 2015 and there was a flow of direct investment into the UK from Ireland of €0.5bn.
Irish stocks of direct investment abroad were €815.2bn at the end of 2015 and the UK accounted for 10.9% of this. The stock of direct investment into Ireland was €795.6bn at the end of 2015, of which investment from the UK accounted for 4.6%.
The value of Irish residents’ holdings of foreign securities was €1,935bn at the end of December 2014 and UK issued instruments accounted for €343bn, or 17.7%, of the total holdings.
The number of persons engaged in Irish owned foreign affiliates was 307,999 in 2014 and 86,180 (28%) were located in the UK. The turnover of Irish owned foreign affiliates was €99bn in 2014 and of this €37.6bn (38%) was in the UK.
Trade: Ireland exported €101.8bn in services in 2014 and €18bn (18%) of these exports went to the United Kingdom. Imports of services amounted to €109.4bn in 2014 and €11.4bn (10%) of these imports were from the UK.
In 2015 Ireland exported €112.4bn of goods and €15.6bn (13.9%) of these goods went to the UK. The top 5 categories of goods exported to the UK in 2015 were: Meat & meat preparations (€1.9bn), Medical & pharmaceutical products (€1.5bn), Organic chemicals (€1.0bn), Essential oils, perfume materials; toilet & cleansing preps (€0.8bn) and Dairy products & birds’ eggs (€0.8bn).
Imports of goods amounted to €70.1bn in 2015 and €18bn (25.7%) of these imported goods arrived from the UK. The top 5 categories of goods imported from the UK in 2015 were: Petroleum, petroleum products & related materials (€1.9bn), Gas, natural & manufactured (€1.1bn), Miscellaneous manufactured articles n.e.s. (€1.1bn), Essential oils, perfume materials; toilet & cleansing preps (€0.8bn) and All other commodities and transactions (€0.7bn).
Tourism and Transport: There were 8.6 million overseas trips to Ireland by non-residents in 2015 and visitors from Great Britain accounted for 3.5 million (41%) of these trips. The total expenditure (excluding fares) by non-residents on overseas trips to Ireland was €4.2bn in 2015 and expenditure by visitors from Great Britain accounted for €971 million (23%) of this. Average expenditure (excluding fares) in Ireland by all visitors was €487 while the average spend by visitors from Great Britain was €274. Visitors from Great Britain spent an average of 4.3 nights in Ireland in 2015 compared to an average of 7.1 nights by all visitors.
In 2015 there were 7.1 million trips abroad by Irish residents and more than a quarter (27.2%) were to Great Britain while 4.7% were to Northern Ireland. Irish residents spent 53.5 million nights abroad in 2015 and about 15% of these nights were in Great Britain while 1.6% were in Northern Ireland. The average expenditure per trip abroad by Irish residents was €849 in 2015 and this varied from €490 for trips to Great Britain to €1,035 for trips to countries excluding the United Kingdom.
The number of second hand (used) private cars registered was 51,663 in 2014 and most of these cars (97%) had been sourced from the UK.
There were 14.8 million passenger arrivals into Ireland on International flights in 2015 and 39% of these passengers arrived from the UK. Of the 14.9 million passenger departures from Ireland on international flights in 2015, 39% went to the UK.
In 2015, 33.6 million tonnes of goods were received at Irish ports and a third of this cargo arrived from the United Kingdom. Just over 17 million tonnes of goods were forwarded from Irish ports in 2015 and half of this cargo went to the UK.
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