Press Statement

Preasráiteas

26 February 2020

Go to release: Measuring Ireland's Progress 2018

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 February 2020) published Measuring Ireland’s Progress 2018, which includes 59 indicators that highlight key trends in Irish society, drawing comparisons over time and in a European context.

Commenting on the report, Declan Smyth, Senior Statistician, said: “Ireland had the highest rate of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates in the EU in 2017. The proportion of graduates in these disciplines was 32.7 per 1,000 persons aged 20-29 in Ireland, while the EU average was 19.3.

Ireland's NEET rate (neither in employment nor in education and training) in 2018 was 12.6%, below the EU average of 13.7%.

Prices in Ireland were 27.3% higher than the EU average, the second highest in the EU in 2018 after Denmark.

The quantity of waste landfilled in Ireland dropped by 69.1% between 2007 and 2017 from 2.01 to 0.62 million tonnes. In all, 22.5% of municipal waste was recycled in Ireland in 2017, below the EU average of 23.2%.

Ireland had 444 passenger cars per 1,000 inhabitants in 2017, the seventh lowest rate in the EU. Luxembourg had the highest number of cars per 1,000 inhabitants at 670, while the lowest was Hungary at 355. In 2017, Ireland’s net greenhouse gas emissions were below the Kyoto Protocol limit by 0.1%.

In 2017, 37.6% of births in Ireland were outside of marriage. In the same year, Ireland, along with Sweden and Denmark, had the second highest fertility rate in the EU at 1.8, although all EU countries had a fertility rate below the theoretical replacement rate of 2.1. The number of persons aged 65 and over in Ireland grew by almost 40% between 2009 and 2019.

Healthy life years at birth for females in Ireland was 69.3 years in 2017, and was 5.3 years above the EU average. The equivalent male rate in Ireland in 2017 was 67.9 years, and was 4.4 years above the EU average.

Females in Ireland can expect to spend 17.5% of their life expectancy in poor health, the fourth lowest rate in the EU. Finland, Latvia and Slovenia had the highest rate, with females predicted to spend at least a third of their life in poor health. Irish males can expect to spend 15.5% of their life expectancy in poor health, the fifth lowest rate in the EU. Males in Slovenia, Austria, Latvia, Finland and Estonia can anticipate spending over a quarter of their life expectancy in poor health."

-- ENDS --