People born outside Ireland now make up more than two-thirds of the population of the area around O’Connell Street, at the centre of Dublin City, according to a breakdown of the latest census statistics.
The electoral division in and around the GPO and O’Connell Street has the highest percentage of people born abroad living in any area in Ireland, with almost 70 per cent of the population of the North City electoral division born outside Ireland.
The electoral division, bordered by the Liffey to the south and Parnell Street to the north, has a population of 5,345 according to the latest census, which was carried out in April 2011.
It is one of six areas in Dublin city centre where the non-Irish resident population now stands at more than 50 per cent, according to an in-depth breakdown of figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) census by the All Island Research Observatory, a research unit and interactive spatial data portal based at NUI, Maynooth.
The Rotunda B electoral district, which takes in part of Parnell Street, the Rotunda maternity hospital and part of Dorset Street Upper, has the second highest immigrant population. Almost 61 per cent of its 2,439 residents were born outside the State.
The immigrant population in the neighbouring Rotunda A district is 52.3 per cent.
Other electoral divisions where more than half the population was born outside Ireland are the area around Smithfield market, which has a 51.4 per cent immigrant population, and around Mountjoy Square, the border of which is Gardiner Street Upper/Mountjoy Square West, where 51.1 per cent of residents were born abroad.
The Royal Exchange A division, bordered by Bride Street/Fishamble Street to the west and which takes in Dame Street and College Green, has a 50.7 per cent immigrant population.
Other city centre electoral divisions which have immigrant populations of between 40 and 50 per cent include Merchant’s Quay B, located around Thomas Street; the division which takes in Mountjoy Prison; that to the west of Croke Park; that around the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham; that surrounding the Guinness Brewery, and that in which the Iveagh Gardens is located.
Outside the city centre, the highest recorded immigrant population of 46 per cent is located in the Airport electoral division, where the population has increased by 150 per cent in the five years since the last census. Just more than 4,000 people now live in the area.
In Dublin West, the electoral divisions of areas of Blanchardstown-Abbotstown, The Ward and Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart have immigrant populations of between 37 and 44 per cent.
The 2011 census showed almost a third of people born outside Ireland live in Dublin. There are now 218,653 non-Irish born nationals living in Dublin, meaning one in five people living in the capital was born abroad. Despite this, some parts of the city and county remain almost entirely Dublin-born.
The highest population of Dublin-born residents are in the Kylemore, Carna, Drumfinn and Decies electoral districts in Ballyfermot, where up to 93 per cent of the population was born within Dublin.
Other areas where more than 90 per cent of residents are Dublin-born include four electoral divisions within the Finglas area; the Kilmore C division of Coolock, bordered by the Northside Shopping Centre on one side and the Cadbury plant off the Malahide Road on the other; and the electoral divisions of Clondalkin-Rowlagh and Priorswood B.