Northern Ireland

Migration into the Republic at highest level in 17 years

Almost 150,000 arrived in the 12 months to April 2024

Applications from the ‘safe countries’ will now be expedited
Applications from the ‘safe countries’ will now be expedited (Niall Carson/PA)
By Conor Coyle

Migration into the Republic is the highest it has been in the last 17 years, a new report from the Central Statistics Office has said.

149,200 people arrived in the 12 months to April 2024, 30,000 of whom were returning Irish citizens.

Of those, 27,000 were from other EU countries, while 5,400 were UK citizens. The remaining 86,800 were from other countries

It was the third successive 12-month period where over 100,000 people immigrated to Ireland.

There were also more people emigrating from the south in the last 12 months than in any year since 2015.

Over 69,000 people departed the state in the 12 months to April 2024, compared with 64,000 in the same period of 2023.

Net migration was higher in the last year than in the previous year, with a 79,300 increase in population as a result of migration in the country in the last twelve months.

The CSO figures also showed a more than 100% increase in the number of people emigrating from Ireland to Australia. Estimates have shown that 10,600 people left Ireland to live in Australia, up from 4,700 last year (+126%). This is the highest level of emigration to Australia since 2013.