The number of people who immigrated to Ireland fell by 16 per cent in the year to April to 125,300, according to data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
It was the fourth successive 12-month period where more than 100,000 people immigrated to the State, and the first since 2020 when there was a fall in the numbers emigrating.
Of the total, 31,500 were returning Irish citizens, 25,300 were EU citizens and 4,900 were UK citizens, with the remaining coming from other countries.
The State’s population increased by 78,300 in the same period to some 5.46 million people.
READ MORE
Some 65,600 people departed the State in the 12 months to April, a 6 per cent decrease on the same period a year earlier.
There was “a natural increase” of 18,600 people due to there being 54,400 births and 35,800 deaths.
[ Why are so many Irish people moving to Australia?Opens in new window ]
Conor J Crowley, CSO statistician for population estimates and projections, said the combined number of immigrants entering and emigrants leaving the State gave positive net migration of 59,700 in the year, down from 79,300 in the previous year.
The 12 months to April 2025 saw 13,500 people leave Ireland to go to Australia, an increase of 27 per cent year on year, and up by 187 per cent on the year to April 2023. This represented the highest level of emigration from Ireland to Australia since 2013, when an estimated 14,100 made the move.
Some 6,100 people left Ireland to live in the US in the same period, up 22 per cent on 2024. Some 9,600 people moved to Ireland from the US, up from 4,900 a year earlier.
More than half of the total immigrants, and just under half of the total emigrants, were aged between 25 and 44. The lowest proportion of migrants were in the 65 years and over age group, with 2 per cent of immigrants and emigrants in this age bracket.
There was a higher proportion of immigrants when compared with emigrants in the youngest age group (0-14 years) in the year to April. Of the emigrants, 5 per cent were aged 0-14 compared with 16 per cent of immigrants.
The proportion of the population living in the Dublin area has risen from 28 per cent of the total in 2019 to 29 per cent and now stands at 1.57 million people.
There were 861,100 people living in Ireland aged 65 and over, with the group’s population share rising from 14.1 per cent to 15.8 per cent of the total between 2019 and this year.
There were just over a million people living in Ireland aged 0-14. This age group had a fall in population share over the last six years, falling from 21 per cent to 18 per cent of the total population.
A downward trend in births since 2010 has driven declines in those aged between 0-4 years since 2012. This has also lead to a decline in those aged between 5-9 years from 2017 onwards.
