Educational Attendance, Attainment and Other Outcomes of Children in Care, 2018 - 2025

Age, sex and nationality

In this release, of the 11,214 children in care in January 2025 or children who left care since April 2018, 82% (or 9,172) were successfully linked to other pseudonymised administrative data sources including those of the Department of Education and Youth, Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection among others (see Background Notes). This release presents a statistical educational thematic overview of those 9,172 children that could be linked only. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and definitions of this release, see the Background Notes. The percentage successfully linked (82%) is an increase on the 81% linked in last year's report.

Of the 9,172 individuals that could be linked for this release, 5,383 were children in care in January 2025, and the remaining 3,789 were children who left care since April 2018 (2,973 of whom turned 18 during this time).

The age breakdown of children in care is shown in Figure 2.1 and Table 2.1.

Most of the linked children in care in January 2025 or who left care since April 2018 were Irish nationals (94% and 93% respectively), while in both cohorts 49% were female and 51% were male, see Figures 2.2 and 2.3 and Tables 2.2 and 2.3.

Children in care and all children

Tables 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3 provide a comparison for the linked children in care with all children (see Background Notes for the definition of ‘all children’). Children in care that could be linked to other pseudonymised administrative datasets have a similar breakdown by sex and age as all children, but the former were more likely to be Irish (94% of the total linked children in care cohort compared with 86% of all children).

Legal status and placement type

Of the children in care in January 2025, 73% were in care under a care order, 13% under a voluntary care arrangement and 9% under an interim care order (see Figure 2.4 and Table 2.4). For children who left care since April 2018, 51% were under a care order, 32% under a voluntary care arrangement and 7% under an interim care order.

Looking at placement type, of the children in care in January 2025, 88% were placed in foster care (including general and relative foster care), with 9% in residential care (general and special), see Figure 2.5 and Table 2.5. For children who left care since April 2018, the final placement type before leaving care was foster care at 75% and residential care at 16%.

Number of placements

When in care, children are placed in a specific care environment with individual placements of varying lengths of time which can range from days to years. Note that children with a total time in care of less than seven days across all placements were excluded from this analysis.

Of children in care in January 2025, 46% had a single care placement while 10% had more than five placements (see Figure 2.6 and Table 2.6). For children who left care since April 2018, 46% had a single placement and 15% had more than five.