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The purpose of the Equality and Discrimination Survey is to collect information on discrimination experienced in the two years prior to interview. Topics covered include the domain in which this perceived discrimination took place, the perceived grounds for this discrimination, the impact on their lives, their awareness of rights, and actions taken by those who experienced discrimination.
Demographic details collected included age, marital status, citizenship, employment details, religion, and ethnicity. The questionnaire also included questions on sex recorded at birth, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
The Equality and Discrimination Survey is a voluntary survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office under Section 24 of the Statistics Act,1993.
The Equality and Discrimination Survey was carried out in Quarter 3 (July to September) 2024. Respondents were asked questions on their experience of discrimination in the two years prior to interview in Quarter 3 2024.
Prior to Quarter 3 2024, the Equality and Discrimination Survey was last carried out in Quarter 1 2019, and before this, as a module of the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) in Quarter 3 2014, Quarter 4 2010, and Quarter 3 2004.
The survey questionnaire for the Equality and Discrimination Survey was developed in collaboration with stakeholders including:
The development of questions on gender identity and sexual orientation, was also informed by research of best practice in other National Statistical Institutes (NSIs).
A new data collection model was introduced for the Equality and Discrimination Survey on this occasion. When the survey was last carried out in Quarter 1 2019, the achieved sample size was 3,971 respondents. A national sample of this size can be insufficient to report on minority groups. So, for the purposes of achieving a larger sample size, sufficient to report data on perceived discrimination for minority groups, and also on gender identity and sexual orientation, a new data collection model was developed. The overall achieved sample for the 2024 Equality and Discrimination Survey was 7,852 respondents aged 18 years and over.
See Table 14.1 for a detailed breakdown of the achieved sample.
Note that where there was missing information for some demographic variables such as religion and ethnicity, Census 2022 was used, where possible. This was not possible in the case of 'Sex at birth' as the Census 2022 question was: 'What is your sex? Male or Female' which might not necessarily be interpreted as 'Sex at birth'.
The questionnaire was developed for multi-mode data collection, with respondents given the option of either an online (CAWI: Computer Assisted Web Interview) or face-to-face interview (CAPI: Computer Assisted Personal Interview). The face-to-face interview included a self-completion (CASI: Computer Assisted Self-Interview) element to allow respondents complete questions of a sensitive/personal nature in private. The questions included in the CASI part of the questionnaire included questions on sex recorded at birth, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, and questions on the respondent’s general and mental health. Once the respondent completed this section of the interview, the answers could not be reviewed by the field interviewer/coordinator.
A copy of the final questionnaire can be found on the methodology page.
The Equality and Discrimination Survey was collected directly from private individuals, selected from the Census sampling frame.
Information was collected directly from selected persons. A person is defined as a "Usual Resident" of a private household if they:
(i) Live regularly at the dwelling in question, and
(ii) Share the main living accommodation (i.e., kitchen, living room, or bathroom) with the other members of the household.
Proxy responses from other members of the household were not accepted.
Data collection for the Equality and Discrimination Survey was constructed in two phases. In the first phase (CAWI, online), each of the 15,000 selected people were issued an email with a link to the online questionnaire. This period of data collection ran for a period of four weeks.
Following this first phase of data collection, all non-respondents were issued to the CSO team of up to one hundred Field Interviewers and ten Field Coordinators (each with a team of ten interviewers). Interviewers received in-house training at the CSO on the information collected in the questionnaire, information such as detailed explanations about the questionnaire and definitions of the concepts involved and examples. This included specific training on the self-completion (CASI) part of the questionnaire, which included questions of a particular private/sensitive nature, on sex recorded at birth, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, and questions on the respondents general and mental health.
This phase was conducted using a team of face-to-face interviewers using Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI). Respondents could choose to complete via CAWI (online) mode at this point also.
The sample for the Equality and Discrimination Survey was a Stratified Simple Random Sample (SSRS), stratified by administrative county and quintiles derived from the Pobal HP (Haase and Pratschke) Deprivation Index. The sampling frame is the 2022 Census. A target of 15,000 individuals were selected for interview.
The total selected sample size for the Equality and Discrimination Survey was 15,000 individuals. The total achieved sample was 7,852 respondents.
Design weights were calculated for all individuals in the initial sample. The design weights are computed as the inverse of the selection probability of the unit. The purpose of design weights is to eliminate the bias induced by unequal selection probabilities.
These design weights were then adjusted for non-response. This eliminated the bias introduced by discrepancies caused by non-response, particularly critical when the non-responding persons are different from the responding ones in respect to some survey variables as this may create substantial bias in the estimates. Design weights are adjusted for non-response by dividing the design weights of each responding unit in the final/achieved sample by the (weighted) response probability of the corresponding group or strata.
To obtain the final individual weights for the results, after the previous steps were carried out, the distribution of households by deprivation, NUTS3 region, sex, and age was calibrated to the population of individuals aged 18 years and over for Quarter 3 2024. The CALMAR2-macro, developed by INSEE, was used for this purpose. Benchmark information was used to gross up the data to population estimates as of Quarter 3 2024. The benchmark estimates were based on:
To provide national population results, the survey results were weighted to represent the entire population of persons 18 years and over. The survey results were weighted to agree with population estimates broken down by age group, sex, and region, and were also calibrated to nationality totals.
Respondents were asked of discrimination they experienced in the two years prior to interview.
The ten types of discrimination examined in the survey were ‘In the Workplace', 'Looking for Work', 'In places like shops, pubs or restaurants', 'Using services of banks, insurance companies or financial institutions', ‘Education’, 'Obtaining housing or accommodation', 'Accessing/using health services’, ‘Accessing/using transport services', 'Accessing/using public services' and ‘Any contact with An Garda Síochána’.
Ireland’s equality laws protect individuals from certain kinds of discrimination, harassment, and sexual harassment. They aim to promote:
The Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 address direct and indirect discrimination in the provision of goods and services on specific protected grounds including Gender and Sexual Orientation. The legislation is designed to promote equality and prohibit discrimination (direct, indirect, and by association) and victimisation.
The Employment Equality Acts 1998–2015 outlaw discrimination in a wide range of employment and employment-related areas. These include recruitment and promotion, equal pay, working conditions, training or experience, dismissal, and harassment including sexual harassment.
As provided for in The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, all public bodies in Ireland have a responsibility to promote equality, prevent discrimination, and protect the human rights of their employees, customers, service users, and everyone affected by their policies and plans. This is a legal obligation, called the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty.
The questionnaire focused on discrimination based on the eleven grounds as set out below:
The grounds for discrimination under the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 include:
A review of Ireland's equality legislation, primarily the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 and the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 (the Acts) was announced in 2021. Reform of these protected grounds for discrimination in the Equal Status Acts 2000-2018 is part of this review. At the time of designing the questionnaire for this survey, this review was at an advanced stage and included the proposed new grounds as set out above. For the purposes of presenting information on the grounds for discrimination, the new grounds for discrimination included in proposed changes to the legislation were used.
As set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2015, trans people in Ireland can apply to have their preferred gender legally recognised by the State. The full text of the Gender Recognition Act 2015 is available on the Irish Statue Book website.
People aged 18 years or over can apply to change their gender. People aged 16 or 17 can also apply, but the process is slightly different and may take longer. For people aged under 16, it is not possible to change their gender that is recognised by the State.
Once a gender recognition certificate has been issued, one can then apply for a revised birth certificate. One’s preferred gender will start to be legally recognised from the date of recognition, and not before. More information is available on the Government of Ireland website - Review (under section 7) of the Gender Recognition Act 2015.
On 12 November 2020, the European Commission adopted the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025. This was the first-ever Commission strategy on LGBTIQ.
The LGBTIQ Equality Subgroup was set up for enhancing implementation of the LGBTIQ Equality Strategy under the High-Level Group on non-discrimination, equality and diversity. The Subgroup is composed of Governmental experts, nominated by Member States’ Governments, to support and monitor progress of the protection of LGBTIQ people’s rights in the Member States. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) contributes to its work, and the Subgroup cooperates on a regular basis with civil society and international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Council of Europe.
The Subgroup started its work in May 2021. It prepared the Guidelines for Strategies and Action Plans to Enhance LGBTIQ Equality to support concrete action to enhance protection of the rights of LGBTIQ people across in the EU Member States. These guidelines identify what LGBTIQ policies, strategies and action plans should cover in order to be useful and effective.
The sum of row or column percentages in the tables in this report may not add to 100.0% due to rounding.
By increasing the sample size for this iteration of the survey it is possible to produce estimates for some smaller subgroups within the population. Nonetheless, care should be taken when interpreting estimates based on small sample sizes.
Survey data are subject to sampling and other errors, which are relatively greater in respect of smaller groups. It should be noted that sample sizes were low for some minority groups, and while they exceed the thresholds below, care should still be taken when interpreting the data and extrapolating the results.
Estimates of discrimination and other variables based on less than 30 people are too small to be considered reliable. These estimates are presented with double dots (..) in the relevant tables.
Where estimates are based on 30-49 people, they are considered to have a wider margin of error and should be treated with caution. These cells are presented with parentheses [ ].
Gender identity is different than the sex, such as male or female, which a person was recorded at birth. Gender identity refers to a person’s identification as a woman, man, another gender, or none. This may or may not correspond to the sex they were recorded at birth.
Since September 2015, trans people in Ireland can apply to have their preferred gender legally recognised by the State. This is set out in the Gender Recognition Act 2015. More details are available under the section Gender Recognition Legislation above.
In publishing the results of the Equality and Discrimination Survey on gender identity, extensive research was carried out on best practice, on both a national and international basis. Examples include:
Statistics Canada Classification of cisgender, transgender and non-binary - Definition of classes - 1 - Cisgender person
Australian Bureau of Statistics Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables, 2020 | Australian Bureau of Statistics
Statistics New Zealand Gender, sex, and LGBTIQ+ concepts in the 2023 Census | Stats NZ
Cis, which is shorthand for cisgender, is the term used to refer to individuals who do identify with the gender recorded to them at birth.
A transgender person is a person whose gender identity does not align with the sex registered for them or recorded to them at birth - if the person’s sex recorded at birth was ‘male’ and their current gender identity is ‘woman’ or the person’s sex recorded at birth was ‘female’ and their current gender identity is ‘man’, they can be described as “trans” or transgender.
Some people identify as having a non-binary gender identity, and they do not identify as either a man or a woman. Examples include genderqueer, gender fluid, gender-diverse, bi-gender.
In the 2024 survey, a question on the respondent’s sex recorded at birth, and a follow-on question on their current gender identity was asked. The questions asked were as follows:
What was your sex at birth? A question on gender will follow
What is your gender? Gender may be the same or different to sex
The responses to both questions were combined to derive the ‘gender identity’ variable.
In the ‘what is your gender’ question above, the ‘other please specify’ category allowed the respondent to describe how they currently identify, if they did not see themselves as fitting with the ‘man’ or ‘woman’ options.
Non-binary for the purposes of this publication includes such persons, including gender diverse, gender fluid, genderqueer, bigender, etc.
In the 2024 survey, a question on sexual orientation was included as set out below:
Which of the following best describes your sexual orientation?
Questions on gender identity and sexual orientation were also asked in the Quarter 1 2019 survey, when they were included for the first time. For reference purposes, the questions included in the 2019 survey were:
Which of the following describes how you think of yourself?
Does the gender you were recorded to at birth correspond to your current gender identity?
The Central Statistics Office wishes to thank the participating respondents for their co-operation in agreeing to take part in the Equality and Discrimination Survey and for facilitating the collection of the relevant data.
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