People are leaving Ireland for Australia in the highest numbers seen since 2013, Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures show.
In the 12 months to to April, 13,500 left for the country, a 27 per cent increase on the same period last year and a 187 per cent rise on 2023.
[ Number of immigrants arriving in Ireland falls by 16%, emigration down for first time since 2020 ]
Mary Gilmartin, a professor at the department of geography of Maynooth University, says what we were seeing, in part, is a return to what happened in the years before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The numbers of people moving to Australia dropped quite a lot before and during Covid,” she says.
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“Of course, Australia had that really severe lockdown during Covid, so I think in a way what had been a bigger movement of people to and from Australia got suppressed by Covid.
“In part what we’re seeing is the return to levels that were actually much more common years ago and a lot of that is through the working holiday visa programme.”
Prof Gilmartin says that around 12,000 working holiday visas were granted to Irish nationals in 2011, with those numbers dropping around 2015 and again in 2020. A total of 11,000 was issued in 2023.
“The key thing is that the working holiday visa is the main route that people move to Australia and that’s a temporary visa,” she says.
“The question then becomes are people going to try and seek to change that into longer-term residency in Australia and we won’t really know that for a few years.
“The numbers are not out of line with what we would have seen just over 10 years ago.
“I really think the movement we’re seeing, part of it is a response to the restrictions that people experienced during Covid. We’re seeing corrections happening or people remembering the feeling of being trapped under Covid and wanting to move.”
The number of people from the United States moving to Ireland in the 12 months to April has also drawn some attention. In all 9,600 people moved to Ireland over the period, up 96 per cent (or 4,900) on previous year’s figures.
Prof Alan Barrett, research professor at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), says he is unsure whether it is a “Trump-related effect”. However, it would be “slightly surprising“ if so, he says.
”These figures are April [2024] to April [2025]. Trump was inaugurated on January 20th and maybe people had time to adjust. It would seem to be a very quick reaction if it was actually him. It could be the case, but flows related to FDI (foreign direct investment) companies are maybe more part of it,” he says.
Prof Barrett says what strikes him most about the CSO’s latest population and migration statistics is there is almost as many Irish people coming back as are leaving the island.
“While 35,000 Irish people left, 31,500 came back. The notion that younger people or people in general have written off the island, it’s just not in the data,” he says.
“Of course, a large number of people are leaving, but really the pattern we’re seeing is the pattern we’ve seen for many years. At any given point in Irish demography, there’s a big group of Irish people leaving and a big group of Irish people coming back.”
