This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
The census questions on education allow the CSO to produce statistics on the length of time people stay in education and the relative levels of educational attainment achieved across the country and various population cohorts. An expanded Irish language question included in Census 2022 facilitates the production of data on the number of Irish speakers, how often they speak the language and how well they speak it.
The full-time education ceased and the highest level of education achieved questions produce data that tracks the level of educational attainment of Ireland's population.
The age at which people ceased their full-time education increased over recent censuses.
In April 2022, there were 150,000 people who had ceased their full-time education before they were 15 years old, down 18% since 2016.
The number of people who finished full-time education when they were 25 years or older was up 48% to nearly 375,000.
There was a change in the level of education question wording in 2022. See the Background Notes for further information.
The proportion of the population who had finished their full-time education and whose highest level completed was lower secondary or below fell from 32% in 2011 to 23% in 2022.
In contrast, the proportion of the population who finished their full-time education after completing an ordinary degree or higher was up from 25% in 2011 to 34% in 2022.
Between 2016 and 2022, there were large increases in the numbers of people with third level qualifications.
An honours degree or equivalent was the highest level completed by over 450,000 people who had finished their full-time education, up 36% since 2016.
The question on Irish language ability continues to provide important data on how many people can speak Irish, how often they use it and in which areas of the country it is more prevalent.
The number of people who indicated that they could speak Irish increased by 6% between 2016 and 2022 to 1,873,997.
This represents 40% of the population aged 3 years and over who completed the question on Irish language, which is unchanged from 2016.
Of the people who said they could speak Irish, 623,961 spoke Irish daily within and outside the education system. This accounts for 33% of the Irish speaking population, compared with 36% in 2016.
71,968 of the daily speakers used Irish outside the education system, a fall of 1,835 on the 2016 figure.
The proportion of people speaking Irish weekly and less often remained stable.
Among those who could speak Irish, one in four (472,887) indicated that they never spoke the language.
The question on speaking Irish was expanded in Census 2022 with the addition of a section on the level of fluency.
Of the 1,873,997 Irish speakers, 10% spoke the language very well with a further 32% speaking it well.
55% of people who indicated that they spoke Irish did not speak the language well.
63% of people aged between 15 and 19 who spoke Irish reported that they spoke it either very well or well.
In contrast, 27% of the Irish speakers aged 50 to 54 recorded that they spoke Irish either very well or well.
A fifth of the Irish speakers in counties Galway and Donegal spoke the language very well, the highest percentage at county level recorded in the State.
Explore census data from county level to neighbourhood (Small Area) level
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