Non-Irish nationals by sex and age

Non-Irish nationals were almost evenly split by gender in April 2016 with 267,088 males and 268,387 females. This continues a pattern first seen in 2011 and reflects a change since 2006 when there were more males than females among the non-Irish population. 

The interactive population pyramid in Figure 2.1 shows the age and sex distribution of non-Irish nationals for selected countries in 2016. The age profile of Non-Irish nationals looks very different to that of Irish nationals.

Nearly half of all non-Irish nationals were aged between 25 and 42 compared with less than a quarter of Irish nationals. Persons aged 65 years or over accounted for less than 5 per cent of the non-Irish population in sharp contrast to the nearly 15 per cent for Irish nationals. In the younger age groups just 12.3 per cent of non-Irish nationals were aged 0 to 14 years compared with 22.5 per cent of Irish nationals.

The age and sex breakdown of the ten largest non-Irish national populations are presented in the Figure below. The age profile varies considerably depending on the nationality. For example, the UK population has a much older profile than other nationalities with the peak age being 50 for males and 49 for females, while the Brazilian population is the most concentrated, with over 80 per cent of the population falling between the ages 20 to 39.

The age population pyramid of each country can be seen by clicking on the countries below:

Non-Irish Polish UK Lithuanian Romanian Latvian Brazilian Spanish Italian French German

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7020

An analysis of the age structure of the three largest non-Irish national groups, namely Polish, UK and Lithuanians, reveals a recurring pattern of stable populations slowly ageing. The average age for Irish nationals increased by 1 year to 37.7 years in 2016. The average age of usually resident non-Irish nationals increased by more than twice that (2.2 years) over the five years rising from 32.6 to 34.8.

The Polish population in Ireland nearly doubled between 2006 and 2011 and then remained almost unchanged between 2011 and 2016, with 122,585 to 122,515 persons respectively. While the numbers remained unchanged, those who are here slowly aged over the five years, with the average age increasing from 27.7 years in 2011 to 31.3 in 2016. 

Fig 2.2 presents the age structure in 2011 and 2016, along with the net change by single year of age. As can be seen, the proportion of persons aged 22-31 more than halved over the five years, from 43.5 per cent in 2011 to 20.8 per cent in 2016, a fall of 27,803 persons for this age group.

Those aged 32 and over grew from representing 34.0 per cent of persons in 2011 to 56.8 per cent by 2016, an increase of 27,957 persons in this age band.

Although the proportion of Poles aged 21 or less remained stable between 2011 and 2016, at 22.5 and 22.3 per cent respectively, the proportion aged 0-5 halved.  In 2011 there were 11,592 Polish children aged 0-5 years representing 9.5 per cent of the total, but this fell to just 5,392 (4.4%) in 2016. This can be partially explained by an increase in the number of children of Polish parents classified as dual-Irish which is further examined in Figures 2.8 to 2.11. 

 

 

UK nationals

Although the number of UK nationals resident in Ireland fell from 112,259 in 2011 to 103,113 in 2016 (a fall of 9,146 over the five years), the number in the age group 0-50 years fell by 16,225 while those aged 50 and over increased by 7,478. 

The average age of the UK nationals in Ireland has increased from 42.6 years in 2011 to 46.7 years in 2016, considerably older than the Irish national population (37.4). 

Lithuanian nationals

Fig 2.4 illustrates the population structure of Lithuanian nationals in 2011 to 2016 and again presents a picture of an ageing population.

For instance the proportion of Lithuanian nationals aged 20-35 fell from representing 51.4 per cent of the total in 2011 to just 39.9 per cent in 2016, while those aged 36 to 45 increased their share from 15.4 per cent of persons in 2011 to 22.6 per cent by 2016.

This is also reflected in the average age of the Lithuanian nationals usually resident in Ireland which increased from 28.7 years in 2011 to 31.8 years in 2016.

Marital status of non-Irish nationals

The marital status of non-Irish national population varies across different nationalities. These differences may be partially explained by the varying age profiles of the different groups combined with cultural factors.

The data is presented in Figure 2.5. Spanish, Brazilian, Italian and French nationals were most likely to be single while Indian nationals had the largest proportion of married persons.  Indian nationals were also the least likely to be separated or divorced (1.3%) while Latvians and Lithuanians were most likely with 15 per cent and 12.7 per cent respectively.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7012

The composition of households headed by non-Irish nationals changes over time, often giving a better understanding of longer-term migration trends.

Figure 2.6 presents the household composition for selected nationalities for 2011 and 2016.

The graph illustrates clearly how for some groups, such as UK nationals, there was very little change in the household structure between 2011 and 2016. Among Polish households on the other hand and for other groups, particularly among those in the EU 15-28 countries such as Lithuania and Latvia, we can see how the proportion of family households without children fell (from 10,751 to 7,630) while families with children increased from 20,830 to 27,425. Similar patterns can be seen in numbers of Lithuanian and Latvian single households reduced, off-set by a corresponding increase in the proportion of family households with children.

Among Brazilian nationals, the proportion of family households (with or without children) fell over the five years while the number of non-family households increased, up from representing 31.2 per cent in 2011 to 38.1 per cent in 2016. In households headed by Italian, French and Spanish nationals, there was a fall in the proportion of one person households between 2011 and 2016 and a corresponding increase in both family and non-family (flat-share) households.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7024

Composition of nationalities within households

Figure 2.7 shows the composition of households containing individuals from the top twenty most populated nationalities resident in Ireland at the time of the 2011 and 2016 censuses. A three way typology is used:

· Mixed Irish nationality households contain at least one Irish national and at least one non-Irish national;

· Nationality only households contain no Irish nationals and only persons with the same nationality;

· Non-Irish mixed national households contain no Irish nationals and at least two non-Irish nationals from different nationality backgrounds.

The main feature of Figure 2.7 is the increase in the number of mixed Irish and non-Irish households, which rose by 17,274 to 134,838 over the five years and accounted for more than half (51%) of this group of households in 2016, up from 47 per cent five years previously.

This was particularly evident among Filipino households where the proportion containing an Irish national increased from 52 per cent in 2011 to 80 per cent in 2016.

A similar pattern can be seen among other large groups. For example, while only 21 per cent of Polish households (10,236) contained an Irish national in 2011 this had risen to 39 per cent (20,839) by 2016, with a corresponding fall in the proportion of Polish only households. Among Lithuanian households the corresponding figures show a rise from 24 per cent in 2011 to 38 per cent by 2016. These changes in the make-up of Polish and Lithuanian households reflect the pattern seen earlier in this Chapter (Figure 2.6) in the increase in households with children. 

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7025

Figure 2.8 to figure 2.11 below examines the age profile of persons in mixed Irish and non-Irish households for selected groups. 

Among mixed Irish/Polish households (fig 2.8) the age profile of Polish persons is, as expected concentrated in the 25 to 50 age group while those classified as Irish or Irish-Polish were predominantly children under 12 years of age. 

Within Irish French households the children were again categorised as predominantly Irish or Irish-French while the adults were more commonly a mix of French and Irish persons. 

There were few Brazilian children in mixed Irish Brazilian households with younger people classified mainly as Irish, while among the adults there was a mix of Irish, Brazilian and other nationalities. 

The age profile of Irish persons in mixed Nigerian households is different yet again with children predominantly identifying as Irish up to age 20 and a small numbers of Irish adults. 

Languages spoken by non-Irish

Census 2016 revealed that 612,018 residents spoke a language other than Irish or English at home in 2016, an increase of 19.1 per cent on 2011 figure. Of these 243,911 were Irish nationals. French (41,241 persons), Polish (22,077), German (17,596) and Spanish (16,803) were the most common languages spoken in Irish homes reflecting the most popular foreign languages taught in Irish schools.

Non-Irish nationals who spoke a language other than English or Irish at home amounted to 363,715 persons in 2016. Figures 6.6 to 6.9 show the most common languages spoken by nationals from the four continents of Europe, Asia, Africa and America.

Amongst European nationals living in Ireland in 2016, Polish was the most common language by far with 112,676 speakers, followed by Lithuanian, Romanian and Latvian.

Amongst Asian nationals, Chinese was the most common language spoken at home, followed by Urdu (Pakistani), Arabic and Malayalam (Indian).

Amongst African nationals Arabic was the most common language spoken, followed by French. Yoruba and Igbo (Nigerian), together with Afrikaans, also featured strongly.

Amongst American nationals Portuguese (11,377) was the most common language spoken predominantly in the homes of Brazilian nationals. Spanish, French and German were the next most common languages spoken.

Non-Irish nationals ability to speak English

The question on ability to speak English is only asked of persons who speak a language other than English or Irish at home. Figure 2.16 charts this ability against year of arrival into Ireland for the 272,287 non-Irish nationals who lived abroad (for at least one year) and spoke a language other than English or Irish at home.

The graph clearly illustrates how ability improves with length of time living in Ireland. Of the non-Irish nationals who arrived in Ireland in 1996 or before, 80 per cent indicated that they spoke English very well in April 2016. For those non-Irish who arrived in 2015 only 44.4 per cent spoke English very well, while nearly one in five (19.1%) could not speak English well or at all.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7063

Age and ability

Of the group examined in Figure 2.17, 57,863 were aged under 24. Their ability to speak English exceeded that of their adult counterparts with 62.8 per cent indicating they could speak English very well, compared with 47.2 per cent of the adults aged 45 to 64.

Among the group referenced above, Lithuanian nationals had the highest proportion who could not speak English well or at all (22.2%). This compared to the average of 16.3 per cent for the group overall.

Latvian (20.9%), Romanian (20.8%), Brazilian (20%) and Polish (18.8%) nationals also had higher than average rates of residents who could not speak English well or at all.