ON CENSUS DAY, APRIL 23rd 2006 . . .

A summary of findings selected from the CSO figures published yesterday.

• British nationals were the largest non-Irish group living in Ireland, followed by Poles, Lithuanians, Nigerians, Latvians and US citizens. The top 10 was completed by the Chinese, Germans, Filipinos and French.

• There were Polish people living in every town and city in Ireland. Their average age was 27, and they had the most one-sided male/female ratio of all major groups with 64 per cent male and 36 per cent female.

• British nationals made up 9 per cent of the population in Kinsale, Co Cork.

• Counties Longford and Monaghan were the least popular among Germans living here.

• 59 per cent of married Polish men and 18 per cent of married Polish women here were not living with their spouse.

• Just over one in four Irish-based Lithuanians were living in Dublin. Ireland's towns were their preferred destination, with Navan, Drogheda, Monaghan, and Dundalk featuring strongly.

• Some 17 per cent of Lithuanians aged from five to 19 could speak Irish.

• Over half of the Nigerians in Dublin were living in Fingal, a further third were in South Dublin, 18 per cent were in Dublin city while Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown accounted for only 1 per cent.

• 80 per cent of Chinese said they had "no religion", by far the highest per cent of any group, while 6 per cent said Buddhist and 1 in 20 indicated Catholic.

• The French population was split evenly between men and women, and was dominated by people in their 20s. 54 per cent selected Catholic as their religion, 38 per cent ticked the "no religion" box.

© 2008 The Irish Times

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