Arrivals since April 2015

In the year prior to April 2016, 82,346 persons arrived to live in Ireland of which 53,708 were non-Irish nationals and 28,143 were Irish nationals (495 did not state their nationality). Among the non-Irish nationals UK nationals, arriving from European countries, were the largest group (5,840) followed by Polish nationals (4,029). American continental nationalities outnumbered Asian and African nationalities with the arrival of 4,615 Brazilians worthy of note.

Almost two thirds of all non-Irish immigrants in 2016 were between the ages of 20 and 34, while 67.7 per cent were single and 27.9 per cent were married. French persons had the highest percentage who were single with 88.9 per cent, followed by Spanish (87%) and Italian (85.3%).

Many recent non-Irish arrivals were living in non-family households (16,411 persons) followed by families consisting of couples with children (11,262) and couples only (7,342).

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7028

Students arriving

Of the non-Irish immigrants who arrived in the year to April 2016 22 per cent (10,401 persons) were students. Of these, half were aged 19 - 24 and more than a third were over 25.

Brazilians were the largest group with 2,370 students, followed by French (774 students) and US (662).

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7044

Persons who lived abroad

Census 2016 revealed that there were 888,899 residents who had previously lived outside of Ireland for one year or more. Of these, 557,611 were Irish nationals (62.7%) and 327,330 were non-Irish nationals (36.8%). Figure 6.3 shows the year of arrival into Ireland for both Irish and non-Irish nationals for the years 1997 to 2016. When analysing these results, it must be borne in mind that a high percentage of residents who were born abroad failed to answer the question on previous residence abroad – repeating patterns observed in 2006 and 2011.

Returning Irish nationals have always been in evidence, averaging around 16,000 persons per year in the late 1990’s and then increasing to reach a high of 21,299 in 2000. Numbers reached a low point in 2009 with just 10,198 arrivals but have increased in more recent years with 18,571 persons in 2014. 

The graph shows that the flow of non-Irish nationals into Ireland remained fairly steady over the period 1997 to 2003 averaging 6,000 persons annually. The numbers increased sharply from 2004 onwards and reached a high of 23,089 in 2006. They fell sharply up to 2009 (8,192) but have since risen again to reach a high of 31,694 in 2015.

Interactive table: StatBank Link E7007