The State\u2019s population has risen by almost 800,000 in the last decade, with two-thirds of the increase coming from net inward migration.<\/p>\n
Figures indicate that the Republic\u2019s population grew by 786,000 or 16.6 per cent between 2016 and 2026 to stand at 5.5 million.<\/p>\n
This was the third highest increase in the European Union<\/a> behind Malta and Luxembourg. It compares to an overall EU population increase of less than 2 per cent.<\/p>\n The Central Statistics Office<\/a> said the Republic\u2019s population growth was driven by positive net migration and by a natural increase as a result of more births than deaths.<\/p>\n Net migration \u2013 the difference between the number of people moving to and from the State \u2013 totalled 511,000 since 2016, which accounted for 65 per cent of the overall increase in population here. <\/p>\n \u201cOver the last 10 years, Ireland has consistently recorded positive net migration,\u201d the CSO said.<\/p>\n \u201cHowever, net migration in 2026 fell by 19.4 per cent (to 48,100) compared with the previous year. Net migration peaked at 79,300 in 2024,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The agency\u2019s latest Measuring Ireland\u2019s Progress report noted that over the last 10 years the natural increase in the population (births minus deaths) has almost halved, from 35,600 in 2016 to 18,800 in 2026.<\/p>\n During the period, the proportion of the population aged 45 and over rose from 37.1 per cent to 42.2 per cent, whereas the proportion aged under 45 fell from 62.9 per cent to 57.8 per cent.<\/p>\n In 2025, Ireland also had the highest young-age dependency ratio in the EU at 28.1 per cent. This ratio measures the number of children aged under 15 years as a proportion of the \u201cworking-age population\u201d aged 15-64.<\/p>\n The State also had the second lowest old-age dependency ratio (the number of people aged 65 or over as a proportion of those aged 15-64) in the EU at 23.8 per cent.<\/p>\n With households in the grip of another inflationary surge, the CSO\u2019s report also noted Ireland had the second-highest price level<\/a> for consumer goods and services in the EU in 2025 at 36.2 per cent above the EU average, while Denmark had the highest at 39.7 per cent above average.<\/p>\n The figures also indicated that the State\u2019s national debt has fallen to its lowest level since the banking crisis began in 2008.<\/p>\n Total debt fell to just under \u20ac210 billion last year, equating to 63 per cent of modified gross national income (GNI*), the agency\u2019s bespoke measure of national income here. <\/p>\n In the wake of the banking bailouts post-2008, Ireland\u2019s debt as a percentage of GNI* soared to 166 per cent.<\/p>\n The State\u2019s improved debt picture since then stands in stark contrast to the trend internationally, with debt crises engulfing several countries, most notably France<\/a>, the United States<\/a> and the United Kingdom<\/a>.<\/p>\n France\u2019s debt \u2013 at \u20ac3.6 trillion \u2013 is currently 120 per cent of the country\u2019s income. The worsening trajectory of its annual fiscal deficit has triggered a surge in French bond yields, hiking up the annual cost of servicing its debt.<\/p>\n Ireland\u2019s debt-to-GDP ratio has been helped more by the rise in national income rather than a reduction in the debt itself.<\/p>\n The State\u2019s GDP has doubled to \u20ac602.4 billion since 2015 on the back of huge multinational-led investment. <\/p>\n As a percentage of GDP, Ireland\u2019s debt was 32.9 per cent last year, the fifth-lowest government debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU.<\/p>\n However, it still equated to \u20ac37,988 for every person in the State, which is large by international standards.<\/p>\n CSO\u2019s figures also indicated that Ireland recorded the highest annual GDP growth rate within the EU, at 8 per cent.<\/p>\n This represented a reversal from 2023, when Ireland experienced the lowest GDP growth rate in the EU, at -3.3 per cent. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State\u2019s population has risen by almost 800,000 in the last decade, with two-thirds of the increase coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,14787,943,113,5148,1814,61,1629,60,303,115],"class_list":["post-660652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-statistics-office","tag-cost-of-living","tag-economy","tag-european-union","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-immigration","tag-ireland","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}