The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a continuous nationwide survey of households in Ireland, primarily designed to produce quarterly labour force estimates that include the official measures of employment and unemployment in the state in accordance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) concepts and definitions.
Labour Force Survey data on this basis have been published since 1988. The ILO classification distinguishes the following main subgroups of the population aged 15 years or over:
In Employment: Persons who worked in the week before the survey for one hour or more for payment or profit, including work on the family farm or business and all persons who had a job but were not at work because of illness, holidays etc. in the week. It should be noted that as per Eurostat’s operational implementation, the upper age limit for classifying a person as employed is 89 years.
Unemployed: Persons who, in the week before the survey, were without work and available for work within the next two weeks, and had taken specific steps, in the preceding four weeks, to find work. It should be noted that as per Eurostat’s operational implementation, the upper age limit for classifying a person as unemployed is 74 years.
Inactive Population (not in labour force): All other persons.
The labour force comprises persons employed plus unemployed and based on Eurostat’s operational implementation is limited to those aged 15-89 years.
The primary classification used for the LFS results is the ILO labour force classification.
The employment rate for the state is defined as the share of persons in the total population of persons aged 15-64 years who are in employment.
For more information see the Labour Force Survey Q4 2025 Background Notes.
Data on employment and nationality is based on statistics compiled from administrative data sources. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner's employee tax data. This is linked to data from the CSO and other sources to provide demographic and economic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland.
Data relates to employments (employees only, not self-employed) in NACE sectors B-S. Some individuals may have more than one employment, and secondary employments earning at least €4,000 per annum are included in the analysis. See background notes for more details.
For more information see Distribution of Earnings by Nationality 2024 Background Notes.
The Population and Labour Force Projections release shows national population projections under various scenarios for the period 2023-2057 as well as labour force projections for the period 2023-2037.
The projections illustrate potential future population trends given specific potential scenarios (termed assumptions) for fertility, mortality and migration, as well as labour force participation.
For more information see Population and Labour Force Projections 2023-2057 Background Notes.
Employee earnings statistics are compiled based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner's employee tax data. This is linked to data from the CSO and other sources to provide demographic and economic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland.
For the purposes of this analysis the CSO excluded employees earning less than €500 per annum and employments where the duration was less than two weeks in the year. Also excluded were secondary employments earning less than €4,000 per annum, extremely high earnings values and missing employer and employee reference numbers. Employment activity in NACE sectors A, T and U has also been excluded from the analysis.
In line with Eurostat requirements relating to Structure of Earnings Statistics (in particular Council Regulation (EC) No 530/1999) the data used for this analysis has been restricted to employments that were active in the month of October.
Some individuals may have more than one employment, and secondary employments earning at least €4,000 per annum are included in the analysis.
For more information see Earnings and Analysis Using Administrative Data Sources 2024 Background Notes and Proportion of Employments and Earnings by Irish and Foreign Owned Enterprises 2023 Background Notes.
Data on lifelong learning is reported in the CSO, Adult Education Survey (AES) releases. The main purpose of the AES is to produce reliable participation rates in further education for the adult population. Data is published on those aged 25 to 69 years old.
The survey produces figures on those who participated in further education broken down by gender, region, level of education, age, economic status and sectors and so on. It also explores how people access guidance on educational possibilities. It is also a source of information on the difficulties experienced by the adult population who wish to participate in education.
The basic legal act for the AES is the Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 of 23 April 2008. It concerns the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning. The implementing regulation (EU) No 1175/2014 details the exact requirements for the specific AES for 2022.
Those who participate in lifelong learning are defined as those who participate in either formal or non-formal education and training.
Formal education is defined as “education provided in the system of schools, colleges, universities and other formal educational institutions that normally constitutes a continuous ‘ladder’ of full-time education for children and young people, generally beginning at age five to seven and continuing up to 20 or 25 years old”.
Non-formal education refers to all organised learning activities outside regular or formal education which you participate in with the intention of improving your knowledge or skills in any area (including hobbies).
For more information see Adult Education Survey 2022 Background Notes.
Third level (Tertiary) education covers ISCED 2011 levels 5, 6, 7 and 8 (short-cycle tertiary education, bachelor's or equivalent level, master's or equivalent level, doctoral or equivalent level, online code ED5-8 ‘tertiary education’).
For more information see Eurostat website.
The Gender Balance in Business Survey provides official statistics from the CSO on gender representation in senior executive teams and boards of directors of large enterprises in Ireland.
The online questionnaire asked for the gender breakdown of the senior executive team and boards of directors.
The survey covered all large enterprises, i.e. those with over 250 employees. Although large enterprises are surveyed, the structure of leadership teams is often small when compared to the overall size of the enterprise. The sectors included in the survey were NACE sections B to S excluding NACE sections O, P and Q.
For more information see Gender Balance in Business Survey 2025 Background Notes.
Employee earnings statistics are compiled based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner's employee tax data. This is linked to data from the CSO and other sources to provide demographic and economic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland.
For more information see Earnings Analysis Using Administrative Data Sources 2024 Background Notes and Distribution of Earnings by Gender and County 2024 Background Notes.
Data on discrimination in the workplace is collected in the CSO Equality and Discrimination Survey. The purpose of the Equality and Discrimination Survey is to collect information on discrimination experienced in the two years prior to interview. Topics covered include the domain in which this perceived discrimination took place, the perceived grounds for this discrimination, the impact on their lives, their awareness of rights, and actions taken by those who experienced discrimination.
For more information see Equality and Discrimination 2024 Background Notes.
Information on job satisfaction was collected as part of the CSO, Personal and Work-Life Balance - Job and Life Satisfaction and Barriers to Work release.
The purpose of the Personal and Work-Life Balance Survey is to collect information on how people in Ireland balance their work and their personal lives. Data collected in the survey included aspects such as job satisfaction, the availability of flexible working arrangements, and paid and unpaid leave. The survey also covered questions on life satisfaction and work-life balance. While the survey focussed primarily on persons in employment, it also looked at barriers to work for persons not currently in employment.
For more information see Personal and Work-Life Balance 2021-Job and Life Satisfaction and Barriers to Work Background Notes.
Data on the extent of working from home is collected as part of the CSO Labour Force Survey (LFS).
The LFS is a continuous nationwide survey of households in Ireland, primarily designed to produce quarterly labour force estimates that include the official measures of employment and unemployment in the state in accordance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) concepts and definitions.
Usually work from home: more than half the time.
Sometimes work from home: at least one hour in the reference period.
For more information see Labour Force Survey Q4 2025 Background Notes.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) includes the following question which is directed to all respondents who are employees at the time of interview:
Are you a member of a trade union or staff association which represents its members in labour and industrial relations issues?
This approach has been used over a period of years and therefore the results present a time-series which is consistent in terms of its scope, namely the number and percentage of employees in employment at the time of interview who are union members. In addition, the LFS series provide a range of breakdowns which cannot be derived from other available sources such as union membership by gender, industry, occupation, age etc.
For more information see Labour Force Survey Q4 2025 Background Notes.
Data on life satisfaction is reported in the CSO, Well-being-Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) releases.
Respondents to the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), who are 16 years and over were asked to rate their satisfaction levels with various aspects of their lives, such as their overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with the financial situation of their households, on a scale from 0 (‘Not at all satisfied’) to 10 (‘Completely satisfied’). The mean score for each satisfaction level indicator is calculated by adding individual scores and dividing the total by the number of individuals.
For more information see Well-Being-Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2025 Background Notes.
Data on income, poverty and deprivation is reported in the CSO, Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) releases.
The primary focus of the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) is the collection of information on the income and living conditions of private households in Ireland, in order to derive indicators on household income, equivalised income, poverty, deprivation and social exclusion. It is a voluntary survey (for selected households). Up until 2020 the SILC was carried out under EU legislation (Council Regulation No 1177/2003) and commenced in Ireland in June 2003. On 01/01/2021 Council Regulation No 1177/2003 was repealed by Regulation (EU) 2019/1700.
Income details are collected at both a household and individual level in SILC. In analysis, each individual’s income is summed up to household level and in turn added to household level income components to calculate gross household income.
The components of gross household income are:
The at risk of poverty rate is the share of persons with an equivalised income below a given percentage (usually 60%) of the national median income. The rate is calculated by ranking persons by equivalised income from smallest to largest and then extracting the median or middle value. Anyone with an equivalised income of less than 60% of the median is considered at risk of poverty at a 60% level.
For more information see Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2025 Background Notes.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.