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The number of people aged 65 years and over is estimated to have risen by over 40% between 2013 and 2023, from 569,000 to 806,000, and is expected to double again to 1.6 million by 2051.
There was an almost 80% increase in the number of people aged 70 and older holding full driving licences between 2012 and 2022, from 205,000 to 366,000.
The number of marriages registered by people aged 60 years and over more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, from 505 to 1,028.
In 2022, in approximately 5% of households that were owner-occupied with a loan or mortgage, the owner was a person aged 65 years or over.
Over 113,000 people aged 65 and over were in employment in Q3 2023, working an average of 31.1 hours per week.
Between 2017 and 2021, the number of domestic overnight trips taken by those aged 65 and over more than doubled, from approximately 125,000 trips to 269,000.
In 2021, there were 240 suspected offenders of assaults aged 60 years and over. This compares with 2,187 suspected offenders of assaults aged between 18 and 29.
The Older Persons Information Hub is located on the main CSO’s website and covers the following themes, encompassing a range of objective and subjective measures:
| Sarah Crilly | (+353) 21 453 5085 |
|---|---|
| health@cso.ie |
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is today (26 January 2024) advising users of the updates to our Older Persons Information Hub. The Older Persons Information Hub was launched in September 2022 and provides a snapshot of the lives of older people in Ireland, highlighting social and economic indicators from a broad range of CSO publications and sources from across the government system.
Commenting on the Older Persons Information Hub, Sarah Crilly, Statistician in the Health Division of the CSO, said: “The population of Ireland is ageing, with life expectancy increasing and older people continuing to be an active and vibrant part of our community. The Older Persons Information Hub includes both social and economic indicators, which cover health, education, employment, poverty, life events, and more. This reflects the full and varied lives led by older people in our country with many continuing to work and act as carers in the community.
“The number of people aged 65 years and over is estimated to have increased by more than 40% in the past 10 years, from 569,000 people in 2013 to 806,000 people in 2023. The number of people 65 years and older is expected to double to 1.6 million by 2051.
What we can see from the data on the Older Persons Hub is the quality of life many of our older citizens enjoy. Between 2012 and 2022, the number of people aged 70 and over holding a full driving licence rose by almost 80%, from 205,000 to 366,000 people. The number of marriages registered from people aged 60 years and over also saw a notable increase, with the number of new marriages among older people more than doubling between 2012 and 2022, from 505 marriages to 1,028 marriages. Between 2017 and 2021, the number of domestic overnight trips taken by those aged 65 and over also more than doubled, from approximately 125,000 to 269,000.
There were 113,700 people aged 65 and over in employment in Quarter 3 2023, compared with five years ago when 75,800 people aged 65 and over were in employment in Quarter 3 2018. In Quarter 3 2023, people aged 65 and over who were in employment worked 31.1 hours per week on average, compared with 37.4 hours per week for those aged 25 to 34. In 2022 around 5% of households that were owner-occupied and with a loan or mortgage had an owner aged 65 years and over.”
Other Key Indicator Highlights:
About the Older Persons Information Hub
There are many ways to understand the lives of older people – seeing changes over time, comparing indicators across a broad range of CSO publications, and looking more deeply at the intergenerational differences within Ireland. The Hub provides indicators sourced from a range of CSO publications and surveys.
Commenting on the Older Persons Information Hub, Sarah Crilly said: “Given the range of many different objective and subjective measures, it is very difficult to create a complete snapshot of the lives of older people in Ireland. The Hub contains 46 different indicators, divided into specific themes. Individuals will, depending on their own experiences, naturally assign different weights to the relative importance to each of the Older Person themes. One of the aims of the Hub is to provide an accessible facility for users to examine themes and indicators for themselves to further understand particular aspects of the lives of older people.”