MORE PEOPLE are leaving Ireland than anywhere else in the European Union, new research shows.
Although Ireland has the EU’s highest birth rate and lowest death rate, people are abandoning the country in droves as work dries up.
Figures compiled by Eurostat, the EU Commission’s statistical arm, show Ireland is markedly different from other countries in terms of population growth and outward migration. Overall, the population of the 27 EU countries is estimated to have grown to 501.1 million at the start of 2010 from 499.7 million in 2009.
A baby boom in Ireland, which began in 2008, has brought the birth rate to levels not seen since the 1890s, but the departure of some 40,000 people last year points to the return of mass emigration.
Eurostat says the net outflow from Ireland was nine people per thousand in 2009, reflecting a huge reversal from the heyday of the boom 2000 when the net population inflow of 8.4 per thousand was second only to Spain. The rate of departures from Ireland last year was almost twice as high as the country with the second-highest exit rate, Lithuania, which lost 4.6 people per thousand.
Economic Social Research Institute economist Thomas Conefrey believes a significant proportion of the outflow so far reflects the departure of non-Irish nationals. While detailed figures are not yet available, young Irish males are deemed be the second-largest group of migrants.
“In terms of labour market mobility, it would be expected to be highest among people who came here to work and who are no longer in employment,” Mr Conefrey said.
“This tendency for the rate of outflow to be highest among non-Irish nationals is backed up by the quarterly national household survey, which measures labour force trends.”
Irish figures for the 12 months to April 2009 point to net outward migration of 7,800 in that period, the first time since 1995 that there was a net outflow.
The ESRI has projected the outflow for the 12 months to April 2010 could be as high as 70,000. By other measures, however, Ireland’s demographic trends go in the opposite direction. The Irish birth rate of 16.8 per thousand in 2009 was more than twice the German rate, the EU’s lowest, of 7.9 per thousand.
The death rate in Ireland was 6.6 per thousand, closely followed by Cyprus (6.7) and then Luxembourg (7.3) and Malta (7.8). Such figures are well below the highest rates, with the death of 14.2 per thousand in Bulgaria the highest observed figure in the EU.
The result of these trends was that Ireland recorded highest natural growth in population in the EU, at 10.2 per thousand. This was well ahead of second-ranking Cyprus (5.5) and France (4.3), Luxembourg (4) and Britain (3.7).