As of 2025, Irish nationals accounted for the largest proportion of employments (71.4%), followed by those from the EU excluding Ireland (11.9%) and Other (8.4%), which includes nationalities not individually listed and employments for which a nationality could not be determined. Irish nationals contributed almost three-quarters (74.5%) of the total earnings in 2025, down 1.0 percentage point since 2024. The nationality categories included in the following analysis contributed at least 1.0% to the total earnings across three consecutive years, between 2023 and 2025 (See Table 5.1).
Over the five-year period between 2020 and 2025, the number of employments occupied by Irish nationals increased by 13.5%. There were also notable increases in the number of employments among Indian (+251.8%) and Brazilian (+127.8%) nationals. In contrast, the number of employments among Polish nationals increased by 3.3% during the same period.
In 2025, the largest proportion of employments occupied by Irish workers was in Wholesale & Retail Trade (15.3%), followed by Human Health & Social Work (15.0%), and Education (11.0%). Similarly, the largest proportion of employments recorded for nationals from the EU excluding Ireland (17.2%) and Poland (21.4%) were also in the Wholesale & Retail Trade sector, while the largest proportion of both UK (15.8%) and Indian (30.5%) nationals were employed in the Human Health & Social Work sector (See Table 5.2).
Irish workers accounted for the majority of employments in each of the economic sectors, ranging from 52.8% in Administrative & Support Services to 93.2% in Public Administration & Defence. Nationals from the EU excluding Ireland represented the second largest proportion of employments across 11 of the 13 economic sectors, with the exception of Accommodation & Food Services and Human Health & Social Work (See Table 5.3).
Please note: The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the official source of estimates of employment.
Median weekly earnings were highest among Indian nationals in 2025 at €862.14, followed by UK nationals at €814.30 and Irish nationals at €792.89. Despite recording the highest median weekly earnings, Indian nationals recorded an annual percentage decrease (-1.6%) in weekly earnings, in contrast to the increase of 5.6% in weekly earnings recorded among Brazilian nationals. It is possible that the decrease in median weekly earnings among Indian nationals was linked to the decrease in the proportion of employments among Indian nationals in Human Health & Social Work (-1.7 percentage points), Information & Communication (-1.1 percentage points), and Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities (-0.8 percentage points) since 2024 as these are typically high earning economic sectors (See Table 5.2).
The mean weekly earnings among Indian nationals did not reflect a similar decrease but rather recorded an increase of 0.3% from €1,041.07 in 2024 to €1,044.00 in 2025. In contrast, mean weekly earnings among Polish and Romanian nationals increased by 5.3% and 5.0% respectively, while mean weekly earnings among Irish nationals recorded an annual increase of 3.6%, from €965.54 in 2024 to €999.90 in 2025 (See Table 5.4).
In general, median weekly earnings among males were higher than those of females. Employments among UK males recorded the highest median weekly earnings in 2025, at €934.24, up 4.1% on the equivalent figure in 2024 (€897.54), and 38.5% higher than the median weekly earnings recorded for employments among UK females (€674.32). Similarly, employments among Irish males (€882.74) had median weekly earnings 25.2% higher than those among Irish females (€704.79) in 2025. Of the nationalities individually listed in this analysis, Indian nationals were the only cohort in which females (€916.88) recorded higher (14.4%) median weekly earnings compared with their male (€801.56) counterparts (See Figure 5.1 and Table 5.5).
| X-axis label | Male | Female | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ireland | 882.74 | 704.79 | 792.89 |
| EU27 excl Ireland | 773.54 | 630.4 | 705.5 |
| United Kingdom | 934.24 | 674.32 | 814.3 |
| India | 801.56 | 916.88 | 862.14 |
| Poland | 775.34 | 614 | 702.13 |
| Romania | 791.87 | 592.01 | 692.65 |
| Brazil | 639.42 | 546.7 | 595.51 |
| Other | 703.36 | 597.86 | 655.14 |
| Total | 832.71 | 681.01 | 759.21 |
Irish nationals recorded the highest median weekly earnings in four of the 13 economic sectors in 2025, including Public Administration & Defence (€1,046.35) and Industry (€1,017.41), while employments among Indian and UK nationals recorded the highest median weekly earnings in a further three sectors, respectively.
Median weekly earnings were highest in the Information & Communication sector among all nationalities included individually in this analysis, ranging from €1,277.30 among Polish nationals to €1,648.90 among EU nationals. Among Irish, Indian, and UK nationals the lowest median weekly earnings were recorded for employments in the Accommodation & Food Services sector, while the Arts, Entertainment, Recreation & Other Services sector had the lowest weekly earnings among Romanian, Polish, and EU nationals. Among Brazilian nationals, employments in Administrative & Support Services recorded the lowest median weekly earnings in 2025, at €448.26 (See Table 5.7).
Variation in median weekly earnings between nationality groups was least in the Transportation & Storage sector, ranging from €706.69 for employments among Brazilian nationals to €808.57 among Irish nationals. In contrast, in the Financial, Insurance & Real Estate sector, UK nationals (€1,317.55) earned 90.4% more per week than Brazilian nationals (€692.09).
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.