Immigration is now at its highest level since records began in 1987, according to the latest population estimates from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The total immigration flow into Ireland in the 12 months to April of this year was 70,000.
The estimated number of emigrants in the same period was 16,600, resulting in a net migration of 53,400.
This is the lowest level of emigration and the highest level of immigration recorded since 1987, when the CSO began compiling such statistics.
Over a third of immigrants entering the country were nationals from the 10 new EU accession states, which joined the Community in May 2004.
The figures show 17 per cent of immigrants were from Poland, while 9 per cent were from Lithunia.
Just under 25 per cent of immigrants originated from outside the EU and US. The figures show 45 per cent of emigrants went to countries other than the EU and the US.
The age profile of emigrants was younger than that of immigrants. Half of all emigrants were aged between 15-24 years, while 54 per cent of all immigrants were aged 25-44 years .
The natural increase in population - in other words the births minus the deaths - for the year ending April 2005 was 33,500.
This combined with a net migration figure of 53,400 gave rise to a population increase of 87,000 or 2.2 per cent.
This brought the overall population to 4.13 million - the highest since the census of 1861 when the population was estimated to be 4.4 million.
Bank of Ireland's chief economist Dr Dan McLaughlin described the population growth rate of 2.2 per cent as "extraordinary" for a developed economy when the EU's population as a whole was growing at 0.2 per cent a year and the developing world figure was around 1.5 per cent.
Dr McLaughlin said: "Ireland has the income of a rich, developed western economy but the demographics of a poor developing nation."
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