Arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland Series 11

Editor's Note

In response to the situation, the CSO provides statistics related to the Ukrainian crisis to an inter-Departmental group called the Humanitarian Senior Officials Group. The statistics include a weekly Department of Social Protection (DSP) extract which the CSO receives every Monday. Some of the aggregate data provided to the Group this week features in the release issued today (24 October 2023). This release is also a follow-up to Arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland Series 10.

As well as the strict legal protections set out in the Statistics Act, 1993, and other existing regulations, the CSO is committed to protecting individual privacy and all identifiable information from each of the data sources used in our analysis, such as name, date of birth and addresses, are removed before use and only anonymised statistical aggregates are produced. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and definitions of this report, see Background Notes.

The Temporary Protection Directive (2001/55 EC) was activated on the 04 March 2022 by EU Council Decision EU 2022/382, to provide immediate protection in EU countries for people displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on 24 February 2022. This publication examines and analyzes the population cohort that availed of the temporary protection and received a PPSN. Therefore, the figures quoted should be interpreted as estimates of the numbers arriving from Ukraine. For example, the number of persons who have arrived from Ukraine may not have received a PPSN yet, while the figures may also include those who received a PPSN earlier in the crisis but who are no longer resident in the State.

To avail of the Temporary Protection Directive and to reside in Ireland, an Arrival from Ukraine must meet the following criteria:

a) A Ukrainian national who was residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022.

b) A national of a third country (other than Ukraine) or stateless person who would have benefited from international protection (for example: Refugee Status) or an equivalent national protection status in Ukraine and were residing there before 24 February 2022.

c) A family member* of persons covered by a) and b) above, where the family already existed in Ukraine at the time of events leading to the mass influx prior to 24 February 2022.

*Family members include a spouse or partner, unmarried minor children of either of them, and their other close dependent family relatives who have been living with them as part of the family unit.

Temporary protection also applies to people who were residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022 with a permanent Ukrainian residence permit, who cannot safely return to their country of origin.

In experimental Tables 3 & 4 below an indication is included on whether arrivals from Ukraine may have stayed or left Ireland, by examining activity in administrative data. In earlier releases of this series a criteria of picking up a welfare payment from a post office was included as an indication of administrative activity. Since Series 10, this criteria has been updated to an individual having a welfare payment date, and so enhancing the measure of activity in administrative data.

Tables and Maps

Figure 1 shows the total cumulative number of arrivals (based on PPSN allocations) from Ukraine to Ireland on the 08 October 2023 was 96,338. This is a 3% increase compared to four weeks earlier (10 September 2023). 

Based on the 96,338 arrivals, 95% or 91,576 individuals could be mapped to an LEA. The LEA mapping of arrivals is based on either the local post office address through which refugees were seeking assistance from the Department of Social Protection or, if available, the arrivals' residential address where an Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) is payable to the host of the residence. The post office address is used as a tentative proxy for place of residence where ARP data is not present. The 91,576 mapped records for the 08 October 2023 are shown on Map 1. Users can hover their mouse over the map to see the name of the LEA and the number of arrivals from Ukraine in the LEA. Zooming in on the map will show data for the smaller sized LEAs. 

Table 2 shows the age and sex breakdown of arrivals as of 08 October 2023. We see that women and men, aged 20 and over, account for 46% and 22% respectively of this cohort to date, while individuals aged 0-19 (both male and female) account for 32%. 

Again using the same approach as described for Map 1 above, Map 2 shows the arrival rate (%) by LEA (per 100 of the Census 2022 de facto population) as of 08 October 2023. The rate ranges from 0.20% to 11.11% in LEAs across the country.

While PPSN allocations give the total number of arrivals from Ukraine under the Temporary Protection Directive, it is not necessarily indicative of how many persons are currently residing in Ireland as some arrivals may have subsequently left. 

Experimental Tables 3 & 4 below give an indication on whether arrivals from Ukraine have stayed or left Ireland by examining activity in administrative data. Attending an Intreo event, having a welfare payment date, starting a SOLAS course, getting paid for employment, having an active employment or changing ones address with DSP are taken as signs of activity. For children, the activity status is dependent on that of their parent(s)/guardian(s). 

Subject to revision, 1,650 persons had such an activity in the available data during August 2023, while an additional 77,369 persons had activity in the selected administrative data sources after 31 August 2023. Combing these two groups together, 82% of persons had recent administrative data activity, i.e., activity after the 31 July 2023, also see Background Notes.

The rate of administrative activity after 31 July 2023 could be underestimated as it is based on the administrative data currently available to the CSO. The availability of more real-time data to the CSO will help provide more up to date statistics in this series going forward.

For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and definitions of this report, see Background Notes.

As of 08 October 2023, 17,466 arrivals from Ukraine were living in private accommodations, where 7,852 hosts were in receipt of Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) for accommodating people from Ukraine. Additional information on hosts and arrivals, such as age bands and sex, can be found in Table 5.

The figures for ARP may also include accommodation obtained via the 'Offer a Home' scheme, Irish Red Cross (IRC) pledges and privately arranged accommodation. ARP is available to any host that applies. As of 12 October 2023, 13,947 arrivals from Ukraine were living in local authorities/IRC/DCEDIY pledged accommodation of which 5,044 were living in accommodation under the 'Offer a Home' scheme.

Table 6 focuses on active welfare claims broken down by 'Working Age Income Supports', 'Child Benefits' and 'Other'. Please note that data is preliminary and subject to change as additional data becomes available, particularly for the most recent week reported.

Table 7 shows that for the 16,535 persons with earnings from employment, the mean weekly earnings in September 2023 were €446 (based on CSO methodology - see 'Background Notes'). The most common sector of employment was Wholesale, Transport and Accommodation at 50%. 

(NOTE: for official statistics on earnings data please see the Earnings, Hours and Employment Costs Survey (EHECS) and Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2021 (EAADS).) 

Table 8 shows changes in employments, where a person can have more than one employment.

Since 11 April 2022, Intreo Public Employment Services (of the DSP) have been arranging employment support events for arrivals from Ukraine and, as of 08 October 2023, those events have been attended by 36,620 arrivals.

The previous occupation of those arrivals from Ukraine are shown in Table 9. ‘Professionals’ were the largest broad group among the classification listed of the 17,504 persons having recorded work history, with 31% (or 5,343 persons).

Of the persons that attended Intreo events, 61% were noted with English language proficiency being a challenge in securing employment, see Table 10.

Of the 26,174 persons where the highest level of education was recorded, 62% had achieved an NFQ level equivalent to 7 or higher, see Table 11.

The marital status of arrivals from Ukraine is shown in Table 12. Of all arrivals to date aged 18 and over, 62% of males and 48% of females were married or cohabiting. Note the martial status data was originally sourced from the Department of Social Protection but for data since the 19 March 2023 it incorporates Temporary Protection Directive data from the Department of Justice.

Table 13 shows that as of 02 October 2023, 17,500 arrivals from Ukraine have enrolled in schools in the academic year 2023/24, with 61% of these in primary schools and the remaining 39% in secondary schools. Cork has the highest number of children enrolled in primary schools at 1,143, while Dublin has the highest number of children enrolled in secondary schools at 807. Monaghan has the lowest number of children enrolled in both primary and secondary schools. 

Table 14a focuses on primary school enrolments by classes while Table 14b provides a breakdown on secondary school enrolments by year within the junior and senior cycles.

In this release, of the 17,500 arrivals from Ukraine that enrolled in schools, 285 had their PPSN registered on or after the 08 August 2023 and were successfully linked to Department of Social Protection administrative data using a pseudonymised Protected Identifier Key (PIK). For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and definitions of this report, see Background Notes. Table 15 shows that average time between the allocation of a PPSN on or after the 08 August 2023 to enrolment in primary or secondary school was just under three weeks. 

Table 16 shows a breakdown of the school enrolments by age as of 02 October 2023. 

Table 17 shows that there were 12,108 arrivals enrolled in further education and training courses on the 01 October 2023, of which 9,425 enrolled in further education English language courses.