There are more people in Ireland but the Republic’s population growth has slowed down. RollingNews.ie photo
By Evan Short
The number of people living in the Republic of Ireland now stands at 4,761,865 according to the summary results from the 2016 census – an increase of 3.8 percent over five years.
Although up from 2011, according to the Central Statistics Office, this is the slowest population increase in twenty years.
The precise increase over 2011 was 173,613.
While the highest population growth was in Dublin (5.8%), Cork (4.6%) and Galway (4.2%), the population fell in two counties, Mayo (0.1%) and Donegal (1.2%).
Births were also down to 67,000 in 2015 compared to 77,000 in 2010.
The average age of the population has risen to 37.4 years, while there were 53,000 more females than males in 2016.
17.3% of the population were born outside the state.
Polish are the second largest nationality in the country after the Irish, standing at 122,515. UK nationals fell by just over 9,000 to 103,113.
One of the most interesting aspects of the census is the reduction in the number of people who classed themselves as Roman Catholic.
3.7 million people (78%) of the population fell into this category – a reduction of 132,220 from 2011 when Catholics made up 84% of the population.
Ten percent of people in the Republic of Ireland declared that they had no religion, up six percent over the last five years, and equating to nearly 200,000 people.
These figures make up the first part from the Census Summary Results.
Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician at the Central Statistics Office said: “Today’s publication comes just twelve months after census night which could not have been achieved without the civic-minded participation of the Irish public.
“The results will provide us with a greater insight and understanding of Ireland today.”
The last Northern Ireland census was taken in 2011 and showed the population had risen by 7.5% to 1,810,863, putting the population of the entire island of Ireland over 6.5 million.
