This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Outputs. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources.
Based on statistical analysis (see background notes) of the staff of An Garda Síochána (AGS), we found that in January 2023:
Almost two thirds (64%) of AGS employees were male.
Around 96% of AGS employees were below 60 years of age.
Around 98% of AGS employees identify as ‘white Irish’.
Some 98% of AGS employees were 'Irish' nationality.
Around 4% of AGS employees had a disability.
Approximately 89% of AGS employees identify as 'Roman Catholic', with 8% having 'no religion'.
The headline table shows a range of diversity related statistics for all AGS employees, while a Census 2016 column for general population comparisons is also included. The results here relate only to the 16,735 (93.5%) AGS employees successfully matched to CSO datasets by unique pseudonymised identifier. However, the high match rate means that it is a statistically representative view of the diversity of Garda personnel.
| AGS Diversity Statistics 2023 for all An Garda Síochána (AGS) Employees 1,2,3,4 | ||
| All AGS Employees | Census 2016 General Population | |
| % | % | |
| Sex | ||
| Female | 36 | 51 |
| Male | 64 | 49 |
| Age Group | ||
| 20-29 years | 9 | 12 |
| 30-39 years | 28 | 16 |
| 40-49 years | 40 | 14 |
| 50-59 years | 20 | 12 |
| 60 years and over | 4 | 18 |
| Ethnicity | ||
| White Irish | 98 | 82 |
| White Irish Traveller | .. | 1 |
| Any other white background | 1 | 10 |
| Black or black Irish – African | 0 | 1 |
| Black or black Irish - Any other black background | .. | 0 |
| Asian or Asian Irish – Chinese | 0 | 0 |
| Asian or Asian Irish - Any other Asian background | 0 | 2 |
| Other including mixed background | 0 | 2 |
| Nationality | ||
| Irish | 98 | 87 |
| Non-Irish | 2 | 11 |
| No nationality (including not stated) | 0 | 2 |
| Religion | ||
| Roman Catholic | 89 | 78 |
| Church of Ireland (incl. Protestant) | 1 | 3 |
| Presbyterian | .. | 1 |
| Methodist, Wesleyan | .. | 0 |
| Jewish | .. | 0 |
| Other stated religion (nec) | 1 | 6 |
| No religion | 8 | 10 |
| Disability | ||
| Yes | 4 | 14 |
| No | 96 | 86 |
| Note: '..' Indicates a cell number < 5 or a cell number < 5 can be identified | ||
| 1 Table includes data from Garda Employee Management Systems (GEMS) as of January 2023 | ||
| 2 'Not stated' values are grossed up for ethnicity and religion | ||
| 3 All employee nationalities are found through further data linking using protected identifier keys (PIK) | ||
| 4 Census 2016 General Population column relate to the full population of all ages | ||
Figure 1 shows the distribution for age group by sex for all AGS employees. There was a higher percentage of male employees between the ages of 30 to 49 years. Some 7% of female employees were 60 years and over compared with 3% of male employees.
| Female | Male | |
| 20-29 years | 8 | 8 |
| 30-39 years | 25 | 29 |
| 40-49 years | 39 | 41 |
| 50-59 years | 20 | 20 |
| 60 years and over | 7 | 3 |
The NDI plays an integral part in facilitating the CSO to develop new and improved statistical products for the benefit of citizens and policymakers. The core concept of the NDI involves the appropriate collection, maintenance and storage on all public sector data holdings, of the associated PPSN, Eircode and Unique Business Identifier (UBI) whenever they are relevant to Public Sector Body transactions with customers. This supports the development of targeted policy interventions.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (14 June 2023) released Diversity in An Garda Síochána 2023.
Commenting on the release, Steven Conroy, Statistician, said: "This is a pilot project, initiated by An Garda Síochána (AGS), to produce a statistical analysis of diversity of AGS personnel. Instead of AGS explicitly collecting and recording the demographic characteristics of employees, it measures diversity by matching public service workforce data to CSO datasets. The success of this project provides a template for anonymously measuring diversity in the public service, while adhering to the principle of "Once only" data collection. It highlights the further potential of the National Data Infrastructure (NDI) to provide an alternative approach to measurement in an environment where public service bodies are being asked to record the ethnicity and protected characteristics of people they interact with."
Commenting on the findings, Steven Conroy said: "Our research found that some 64% of AGS employees in January 2023 were male. Around 96% of AGS employees were below 60 years of age. For ethnicity, around 98% of AGS employees identify as ‘white Irish’. Regarding nationality, some 98% of AGS employees were 'Irish'. Around 4% of AGS employees had a disability. Looking at religion, it was found that around 89% of AGS employees were 'Roman Catholic' and 8% were 'no religion'.
In this report, we show further breakdowns of these diversity statistics by AGS organisational structure - at a high level and a more detailed regional level."