Measuring Ireland's Progress 2017

Ireland's population was 4.86 million in April 2018, an increase of 1.3% (or 64,500 persons) on 2017. 

The proportion of the population aged 65 years and over increased over the last ten years, from 10.8% in 2008 to 13.9% in 2018. The proportion of the population aged 45 to 64 also increased, rising from 21.8% in 2008 to 24.2% in 2018.

Conversely, over this same time period, the proportion of the population aged 25-44 dropped from 32.1% to 28.7% while the population aged 15-24 also decreased, falling from 14.9% to 12.5%. 

Although in the ten years prior to 2018 the proportion of the population aged 0-14 years grew marginally from 20.4% to 20.8%, Table 1.1 illustrates that Ireland has an aging population.

The proportion of the population aged 15 to 64 decreased from 68.8% in 2008 to 65.4% in 2018.

Ireland had the fifth highest percent increase (8.5%) in population growth among European Union (EU) 28 countries between 2008 and 2018, after Luxembourg, Malta, Cyprus, and Sweden.  

Ten EU countries experienced a decrease in their population between 2008 and 2018. They are: Poland, Estonia, Portugal, Hungary, Greece, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Germany had the largest population in the EU in 2018 at 82.9 million people, about 17 times the size of Ireland's population. Approximately one in six people in the EU in 2018 was German.

Inward migration to Ireland dropped from 113,500 people in 2008 to 41,800 in 2010, but has increased each year since then to stand at 90,300 in 2018. 

The number of emigrants from Ireland rose from 49,200 in 2008 to 83,000 in 2012, but since then has dropped each year to 56,300 in 2018. 

The combined effect of these trends resulted in negative net migration from 2010 to 2014 (i.e. more people left the country than entered). In 2015, there was a return to positive net migration, when a total of 5,900 more persons entered than country than left. By 2018, there was net migration of 34,000 persons.

The number of births in 2010 was 77,200, but has dropped each year since then to reach 61,200 in 2018. Over the last ten years, the natural increase in the population (i.e. the number of births minus the number of deaths) has dropped from 44,900 in 2008 to 30,500 in 2018. 

The annual population change in 2008 was 109,200 persons, before decreasing sharply to 18,800 in 2012. It since increased to 64,500 persons in 2018.

In 2018, there were 90,300 immigrants into Ireland. Just over 20,000 arrived from the UK and 14,900 from the rest of the EU 15 (those EU countries before enlargement in May 2004). 

About 27,400 immigrants were from the Rest of the World in 2018 (i.e. countries other than the EU, USA, Australia or Canada). 

Of the 56,300 emigrants who left Ireland in 2018, 11,400 moved to the United Kingdom (a drop from 20,000 in 2013). Emigration to the United States of America also decreased over this time period, from 14,100 in 2013 to 4,500 in 2018. 

Ireland had the highest young age dependency ratio in 2018, when the number of people aged under 15 as a proportion of those aged 15-64 was 32.2.%. 

Ireland had the second lowest old age dependency ratio in 2018, when the number of people over the age of 65 years as a percentage of people aged 15-64 was 20.7%. 

This had the combined effect of a young and old age dependency ratio of 52.9% in Ireland, which is one percentage point less than the EU average of 53.9%.

The highest combined dependency ratio in the EU in 2018 was France at 60.0%, while the lowest was Slovakia at 43.8%.

Ireland had a fertility rate of 1.81 in 2016. This was the third highest in the EU, after Sweden at 1.85 and France at 1.92.

Italy and Spain had the lowest fertility rates in the EU in 2016 at 1.34. In general, Mediterranean countries had lower fertility rates than the EU 28 average.

All countries in the EU fall below the theoretical replacement fertility rate of 2.1. 

The average age of first time mothers in Ireland rose from 29.3 years in 2011 to 30.1 years in 2016. The EU average in 2016 was 29.0 years.

About one in three births in Ireland (36.6%) were outside marriage in 2016, below the EU average of 42.6%. There has been a steady increase in the proportion of live births outside marriage in the EU in the past five years, from 39.3% in 2011 to 42.6% in 2016. 

In the EU, eight countries experienced more than half of births outside of marriage in 2016: the Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and France.

The country with the lowest proportion of births outside of marriage in 2016 was Greece (9.4%). 

Ireland continues to have the lowest divorce rate in the EU, at 0.7 divorces per 1,000 persons in 2016.

The average divorce rate in the EU is 1.9 divorces per 1,000 persons. 

Many of the countries in the EU with the highest divorce rates are in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions.

In 2016, Ireland had an at risk of poverty rate of 43.8% before social transfers and pensions. This was the twelfth highest in the EU in 2017 and the same as the EU average.

After social transfers and pensions, the proportion of persons at risk of poverty decreased 28 percentage points to about one in six persons in Ireland in 2016 (15.7%). The EU average was 17.0%. 

In 2017, Czech Republic had the lowest proportion of its population at risk of poverty after social transfers and pensions at 9.1%, and Romania had the highest at 23.6%.

In 2017, 15.7% of all persons in Ireland were considered at risk of poverty. People aged 0-17 had the highest at risk of poverty rate, at 18.4%,  followed by people aged 18-64 at 16.2%. People aged 65 and older had the lowest at risk of poverty rate at 8.6%, just over half of the rate of those aged 18-64. 

About one in every fifteen people in Ireland was in consistent poverty in 2017 (6.7%). This was a decrease from 2016 when the rate was roughly one in twelve people (8.2%). 

In 2017, 8.8% of persons aged 0-17 were in consistent poverty, compared to 7.0% of those aged 18-64, and just 1.7% of those aged 65 and over.

In 2017,  households with one adult and children under 18 years old had the highest at risk of poverty rate at 39.9%. These households also had the highest consistent poverty rate at 20.7%.  

Single person households with one adult aged less than 65 years had the second highest at risk of poverty rate at 34.2%, and the second highest consistent poverty rate at 20.0%. 

Households with two adults, at least one aged 65 years and over had the lowest at risk of poverty rate in 2017 at 9.2%, as well as the lowest consistent poverty rate at 2.1%. 

This was closely followed by households with two adults and 1-3 children under 18 years, which had an at risk of poverty rate of 9.4%.

In 2017, the group with the highest at risk of poverty rate in Ireland were unemployed persons, at 42.0%. This group also had the highest consistent poverty rate, at 24.1%. 

Students and those unable to work due to illness or disability also had high at risk of poverty rates (both at 35.4%), as well as consistent poverty rates (13.8% and 24.0% respectively).

Those who work had the lowest at risk of poverty and consistent poverty rates, at 5.4% and 1.4% respectively. Retired persons also had a low at risk of poverty rate (9.1%), and a low consistent poverty rate of 1.5%.

Female employees in Ireland were paid 13.9% less than their male counterparts in 2014. This was the twelfth lowest pay gap in the EU in 2014, and fell below the EU average of 16.6%.

Romania had the lowest gender pay gap in 2016 at 5.2% and Estonia had the highest at 25.3%.

Net Official Development Assistance (ODA) was 0.32% of Gross National Income (GNI) in Ireland in 2017, and was the tenth highest rate in the EU. The rate of ODA in Ireland was 0.41% when calculated as a proportion of Modified Gross National Income (GNI*).

Four EU countries had ODA rates of 0.7% of GNI or more in 2017: Sweden (1.01%), Luxembourg (1.00%), Denmark (0.72%), and the United Kingdom (0.70%).

The lowest rate of ODA in the EU, for those countries for which data was available, was 0.11% of GNI in Hungary, Bulgaria, and Latvia.

The percentage of households in Ireland with access to the internet has increased steadily in the past decade, from 57% in 2007 to 88% in 2017. 

In 2017, Ireland had the 9th highest rate of household access to the internet in the EU, and was just above the EU 28 average of 87%. 

Nearly all households (98%) in the Netherlands had access to the internet, while the rate in Bulgaria was 67%. 

Four countries in the EU have internet access rates at or above 95%: the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Sweden.