Brexit - Ireland and the UK in numbers

• There were 112,259 UK nationals in Ireland in 2011, 2.5% of the total population.

• In 2011 62% of the Irish population lived in urban areas while 38% lived in rural areas. UK nationals were more likely to live in rural areas than the population as a whole, with 51% living in rural areas and 49% in urban areas.

• There were 112,559 UK 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.
• Proportionally fewer UK nationals lived in Leinster in 2011 compared to the total population and proportionally more UK nationals lived in Munster, Connacht and Ulster than the total population. Thus there is a wider spread of UK nationals across the country than the general population.
• In 2011 54.6% of all persons in Ireland were living in Leinster compared to 43.3% of UK nationals, while 11.8% of the total population lived in Connacht compared to 17.0% of UK nationals.

• UK nationals are more likely to live in a detached house than the general population.  53.8% of UK nationals live in a detached house compared with 45.0% of the general population.
• In contrast, UK nationals are less likely to live in a semi-detached or a terraced house than the general population. 23.4% of UK nationals live in a semi-detached house compared with 28.1% of the general population, while 12.1% of UK nationals lived in a terraced house compared with 15.5% of all persons.

• UK nationals are less likely to own their house than the general population - 63.7% of UK nationals own their home while 70.3% of the total population own their home.
• Conversely, UK nationals are more likely to rent then the population as a whole,with just under a third of UK nationals are renting compared with a quarter of the general population.

• UK nationals are more likely to be older than the general population with 57.8% of UK nationals aged 40 years and over compared with 41.6% of the general population.
• Conversely, UK nationals are less likely to be aged under 10 years, with 4.7% of UK nationals in this age group compared with 14.9% of 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 were unemployed compared with 9.3% of the total population while 9.6% of UK nationals were looking after home/family compared with 7.4% 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.

• The proportions of UK nationals in the various Sociol Economic Groups in 2011 is broadly similar to the general population with a few small differences.
• UK nationals are slightly more likely to be self employed (own account workers) than the general population, and they are also slightly more likely to be in the professional groups (A to C). 
• Conversely, they are slightly less likely to be farmers or non-manual workers than the general population.

• UK nationals are far more likely to be from any other white background and far less likely to be Irish than the general population, which is to be expected.

• There were 8,295 residents from Ireland in 2011 who were either in full-time education or in employment in Northern Ireland.Of these 8,295 residents, 2,316 (27.9%) were aged 35-44 while 2,196 (26.5%) were aged 25-34.
• Just over half (54.1%) of the Irish residents who commuted each day across the border were female.
• There were 6,456 residents from Northern Ireland in 2011 who were either in full-time education or in employment in Ireland. A third of these 6,456 people were aged 25-34 while 27.9% were aged 35-44.
• 57% of Northern Ireland residents who commuted each day across the border were male.

• The number of persons arriving in Ireland (immigrants) from other countries has increased steadily over the last seven years from 41,800 persons in 2010 to 79,300 by 2016.
• The number of immigrants arriving in Ireland from the UK remained relatively stable at about 10,000 per annum over the time period 2010 to 2015 before increasing to 13,800 in 2016.
• Of the 79,300 immigrants in 2016, 17.4% are estimated to have arrived from the United Kingdom.
• The number of persons leaving Ireland to live abroad (emigrants) rose from 69,200 in 2010 to 89,000 in 2013 before dropping to 76,200 in 2016.
• The number of emigrants to the UK rose from 15,300 in 2010 to 21,900 in 2013.
• Emigration to the United Kingdom then dropped to 17,900 in 2014 before rising to 19,200 in 2015 and decreasing to 16,600 in 2016.
• Of the 76,200 emigrants from Ireland in 2016, just over a fifth (21.8%) are estimated to have left to live in the UK.
• Over the time period 2010 to 2016, it is estimated that 73,000 people arrived to live in Ireland from the UK while about 130,000 people left Ireland to live in the UK.

• The number of persons arriving from abroad to live in Ireland (immigrants) has increased steadily over the last seven years from 41,800 persons in 2010 to 79,300 by 2016.
• The number of immigrants arriving in Ireland who were UK nationals has remained relatively stable between 2013 and 2016 averaging 4,000 per annum.
• Of the 79,300 immigrants in 2016, 4,500 (5.7%) were UK nationals.
• The number of persons leaving Ireland to live abroad (emigrants) rose from 69,200 in 2010 to 89,000 in 2013 before dropping to 76,200 in 2016.
• The number of emigrants who were UK nationals has remained relatively stable over this time period at about 3,000 to 4,000 each year.
• Of the 76,200 emigrants from Ireland in 2016, 2,600 or 3.4% were UK nationals.                                
• Over the time period 2010 to 2016 it is estimated that about 28,100 UK nationals arrived in Ireland while about 24,100 left Ireland.

• There were 79,161 PPSN allocations to foreign nationals in 2009. This number dropped to 67,365 in 2011 before rising to 96,167 by 2014.
• The number of PPSN allocations to UK nationals has remained relatively stable over the 2009 to 2014 time period, at about 13,500 each year.
• There were 13,817 allocations to UK nationals in 2014 and nearly a third (31.5%) were to persons aged 45-64 while 31.2% were to people aged 25-44.
• This compares to 96,167 allocations to all nationalities in 2014, of which 46.4% were to persons aged 25-44.

• There were 108,500 UK nationals aged 15 years and over in Ireland at the start of 2016. 54,500 were in employment while 6,300 were unemployed. A further 47,700 were not in the labour force, (e.g., student, retired, home duties).
• Of the 1,976,500 people in Ireland aged 15 years and over who were in employment at the start of 2016, 54,500 (2.8%) of these were UK nationals.
• There were 179,500 people unemployed at the start of 2016 and 6,300 of these were UK nationals, (or 3.5%).
• The number of people aged 15 years and over who were not in the labour force at the start of 2016 was 1,470,200 and 47,700 of these were UK nationals.
• Of the total population aged 15 and over in Q1 2016, 54.5% were in employment. 53.5% of Irish nationals were in employment, compared to 50.2% of UK nationals and 63.8% of non-Irish/UK nationals.
• 4.7% of Irish nationals were unemployed compared to 5.8% of UK nationals and 6.6% of non-Irish/UK nationals.

• There were 173,649 full time third level students in Ireland in 2014/2015.
• Nearly 92% of the full time third level students in Ireland in 2014/2015 were Irish nationals while 1,652 (or 1%) were from the United Kingdom and 12,616 students (7.3%) were from other countries.

• In 2014/2015 there were 174,407 Irish students studying full time at third level.
• Just over 91% of full time third level Irish students were studying in Ireland while 11,448 (6.6%) were studying in the United Kingdom and 3,578 (2.1%) were students in other countries.

Go to next chapter >>>   Business