The population is now the highest in the history of the State due to record net immigration and a growing gap between the number of births and deaths, according to estimates released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.
The largest annual increase for almost 20 years has brought the population to 3.7 million in April 1998, up 44,300 or 1.2 per cent on April 1997. This is the highest recorded figure since 1881, when 3.87 million people lived in the 26 counties that now make up the State.
The continuing economic boom has resulted in the number of immigrants rising to 44,000, almost double the emigration figure of 21,200 in the 12 months to April 1998. The immigration figure matches the record high figure for last year while the emigration figure is the lowest since the CSO began publishing an emigration estimate in 1987.
Emigration has been falling since 1993. Immigration, in contrast, has increased steadily from 30,100 in 1994 to an estimated 44,000 in 1997 and in 1998. The gap between the two figures - net migration - is now a historical high of 22,800.
Matching the net migration figure, there were 21,400 more births than deaths in the year to April 1998. While yesterday's figures do not give a birth rate, they show that the number of people in the State under four years of age (253,600) increased in the year up to April 1998 after many years of steady decline.
More than half of all immigrants (53 per cent) were Irish people returning home after periods spent living abroad. The others were of UK nationality (19 per cent) from the rest of the EU (13 per cent) the USA (5 per cent) and the rest of the world (10 per cent).
Meanwhile, 40 per cent of emigrants went to the UK with 20 per cent each going to the rest of the EU, the United States and the rest of the world.
The population of the 26 counties that now make up the State was 6.5 million in 1841 before the fall during and after the Great Famine. It was 3.87 million in 1881 and fell to its lowest point of 2.8 million in 1961.
Figures for the last five years also show that the number of people over 80 years of age has risen from 84,700 in 1993 to 93,100 in 1998. Of the 1998 figure 60,600 of those at this advanced age were women with just 32,500 being men.