One in ten Laois people not Irish while Catholicism in county is falling - finds Census 2022

One in ten Laois people are not Irish citizens with the biggest group of this from Poland, according to the latest round of figures from Census 2022.

The Central Statistics Office has published key findings for Laois from its analysis of Census 2022 on diversity, migration, ethnicity, Irish Travellers and religion in the Republic.

The CSO reports that Laois non-Irish citizens accounted for 10% or 9,132 of the county’s population 91,877. Among the non-Irish residents, the largest group were Polish citizens (2,298 people) followed by UK citizens (1,159), Lithuanian (712) and Romanian (569).

The CSO found that 25% of the non-Irish citizens in Laois were Polish which is one of the highest county rates in Ireland. However, the number of Poles in Laois has fallen since the last Census in 2016 when there were 2,721 Polish nationals living in Laois.

The number of foreign nationals living in Laois is likely to have risen significantly since Census night on April 2022 due mainly to the Ukraine war. Figures show that there were just over 200 Ukrainians living in Laois on that date. Since then the number has climbed beyond 1,000 in the county.

Nationally there were over 631,000 non-Irish citizens, which was 12% of the population. The number of dual-Irish citizens, which is when you are a citizen of two countries at the same time, in the county increased from 1,376 in 2016 to 2,527 in 2022.

The largest dual-Irish citizenships included Irish-Polish (450 people), Irish-UK (408) and Irish-Nigerian (241). There were more than 170,500 dual-Irish residents in Ireland in Census 2022. 

As for immigration, there were 2,686 people living in Laois in April 2022 who had moved to the county in the year before the census. Well over half of this figure included 1,932 people who had moved from elsewhere within Ireland, and 754 people from outside the State. A further 2,440 people had moved within the county in the year before the Census.

The figures also covered the county's ethnic groups and background. The CSO has found that more than 72,100 people living in Laois in April 2022 had a White Irish ethnic group or background.

A further 8,384 people identified as any other white. There were 1,248 people whose ethnic group/background was Asian or Asian Irish - Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi and 1,774 people with a Black or Black Irish – African ethnic group/background.

The report also examined the presence of Irish Travellers in Laois. It shows that there were 812 Travellers in Laois in Census 2022, compared with 780 in 2016 (+4%). This included 416 females and 396 males. There were 32,949 Travellers in Ireland, compared with 30,987 in 2016 (+6%). This included 16,777 females and 16,172 males.

As for religion, Census 2022  revealed that more than 68,600 people in the county were Catholic (75%). This was down from 83% in Census 2016. Nationally, 69% stated they were Catholic, compared to 78% in 2016. The other most common religions in Laois included Church of Ireland (with 3,287 people), Orthodox (1,739) and Islam (1,462).

There were more than 8,900 people who stated they did not have a religion, which was up from almost 4,800 in Census 2016, up 88%. They made up 10% of the county’s population, compared with 6% in 2016.

Brendan Murphy, Statistician in the Census Division, commenting on the national results overall. 

“Profile 5 provides detailed information on the range of citizenships among the Irish population, including breakdowns by age and sex as well as by county and town. It shows the recent immigration to Ireland and migration within Ireland. The number of people that moved to Ireland in the year to Census night 03 April 2022 rose by 9% to more than 89,500 people compared with the same period in Census 2016.

"This wide-ranging profile also considers the various ethnic backgrounds of our population, including details on the age, sex, and citizenship of different groups. It looks at our Traveller population in 2022, including breakdowns by sex and household type. It also details the religious composition of the Irish population in April 2022,” he said. MORE BELOW GRAPHIC.

EXPLAINER FROM THE CSO

Profile 5 also shows that more than 750,000 people spoke a language other than English or Irish at home, with the most commonly spoken languages being Polish, Romanian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

The census collects data on people who have come to live in the State in the year leading up to the census which gives a breakdown of patterns of migration. There was a 9% increase in the number of people moving to Ireland in the year to Census night (03 April 2022), to more than 89,500 people compared with the same period leading up to Census 2016. One in four of the people moving to Ireland were Irish citizens. 

The question on ethnic group/background was updated for Census 2022 with new categories added including Roma, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, and Arab. The change to the question means that some categories are not directly comparable with the previous census results. The relationship between ethnic group/background and country of citizenship gives further insight into the diversity of the population. The most common country of citizenship of the Roma population living here was Ireland (28%), followed by Romania (22%), Italy (10%), and Poland (9%).

The Irish Traveller population rose by 6% to almost 33,000 people. The average age of Irish Travellers was 27 years compared with an average age of 39 for all people living in Ireland. Among the population overall, 15% were aged 65 years or over compared with just 5% of Irish Travellers.

The number of people with no religion living in Ireland grew to more than 736,000 or 14% of the population. This was up 63% since Census 2016. There were also large increases in the number of people whose religion was Orthodox (up 65% to 100,165), Islam (up 32% to 81,930), and Hindu (up 141% to 33,043).”

Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers, and Religion – Some Highlights Broken down by Theme

Citizenship
Census 2022 included a question asking ‘What is your country of citizenship?’. This is used to collect data on the number of people with Irish or non-Irish citizenship, or dual citizenship (both Irish and non-Irish). In previous censuses the question asked was ‘What is your nationality?’

There were almost 632,000 non-Irish citizens living in Ireland for Census 2022, which was 12% of the population. This compares with 11% of the population in Census 2016. Almost 313,000, or nearly half, were from other European Union (EU) countries, an increase of 2% since 2016. UK citizens made up 13% of the non-Irish population (83,347 people). There were just over 100,000 citizens of Asian countries living here, which was 16% of the non-Irish population. More than 25,000 were citizens from non-EU European countries, up 131% since 2016. This growth was largely driven by the crisis following the invasion of Ukraine.

Just over one in five people living in Dublin City (21%) were non-Irish citizens while 18% of Galway City residents and 17% of those in Fingal were non-Irish. UK citizens made up 36% of the non-Irish population in Donegal but just 6% of that in Dublin City.

Ballyhaunis in Mayo was the town with the highest proportion of non-Irish residents at 37%.  Other towns with a large share of non-Irish citizens included the Longford towns of Ballymahon (33%) and Edgeworthstown (31%). 

While the average ages of both Irish and non-Irish citizens have risen in recent censuses, non-Irish citizens were still on average younger than Irish citizens. Non-Irish citizens had an average age of 36 years compared with more than 39 years for Irish citizens. However, UK and German citizens were both older on average, at almost 50 years and 42 years respectively. Ukrainian citizens had an average age of 25 years. The number of Brazilians living in Ireland was 27,338 and nearly 80% were aged between 23 and 43 years compared with just 25% of Irish citizens.

More than 750,000 people spoke a language other than English or Irish at home. The majority of these could speak English either very well (57%) or well (26%) while 11% reported that they could not speak English well and 2% did not speak it at all. 

Immigration
The census collects data on people who came to live in Ireland in the year leading up to the census. This gives a breakdown of immigration patterns and characteristics of the people who arrived.

Just over 89,500 people moved to Ireland in the year before Census 2022. This was a 9% increase on the numbers who moved in the year before Census 2016. Almost one in four of those who moved to Ireland in the 12 months before Census 2022 were Irish citizens. Of these, almost 8,400 had moved from the UK while more than 2,500 came from Australia.

Among the non-Irish citizens who came to Ireland in the year to April 2022, nearly 10,000 came from India and almost 5,200 came from Brazil. Of the top 10 countries from which people moved to Ireland, five were EU members – Spain, Romania, France, Italy, and Poland.

There were 18,566 people present in the State on Census night who indicated that their country of citizenship was Ukraine. Many of these people indicated that their country of usual residence was not Ireland, so they are not included in the main figures on country of citizenship which are based on people who were usually resident in Ireland at the time of the census.

Ethnic Group/Background
The question on ethnic group/background was updated for Census 2022 to include the new categories of Roma, Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi, and Arab.

There were almost 3.9 million people who identified their ethnic group/background as White-Irish in Census 2022. Almost 33,000 were White-Irish Travellers while more than 502,000 were of Any Other White background.

Looking at the new categories, there were 94,434 people with an Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi ethnic group or background. There were 20,115 people who indicated an Arab ethnic group/background and 16,059 people who identified as Roma.

The were 67,546 people with Black or Black-Irish – African ethnic group or background, which is up 17% on the 2016 figure. Nearly 8,700 people had a Black or Black-Irish – Any other Black ethnic group or background, up 28%.

There were 26,828 people with Asian or Asian Irish – Chinese ethnic group or background, which was 38% higher than in 2016.

Irish Travellers
The Irish Traveller population grew by 6% to almost 33,000 in Census 2022. This meant that six out of every 1,000 people in the State were Irish Travellers. Most counties saw an increase in their Traveller population, with the largest being in Offaly (up 30% to 1,174), Fingal (up 17% to 1,545), Tipperary (up 17% to 1,434), and Cork (up 11% to 2,376). However, the number of Travellers in some counties fell between 2016 and 2022, including Longford (down 13% to 913) and South Dublin (down 12% to 1,943).

The average age of Irish Travellers was 27 years compared with an average age of 39 for all people living in Ireland. Children under the age of 15 made up 20% of the total population but 36% of Irish Travellers. Among the population overall, 15% were aged 65 years and over compared with just 5% of Irish Travellers.

Looking at health status, 67% of Irish Travellers stated that their health status was good or very good, compared with 83% of the total population, while 4% stated they had bad or very bad health, compared with 2% of the total population.

Travellers were more likely to report experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent, at 26%, compared with 22% of the total usual resident and present population. Among Traveller children under the age of 15 years, 7% reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent, compared with 4% of all children.

Travellers were more likely to be daily smokers at 16% compared with 9% of the total population.

Religion
More than 3.5 million people, or 69% of the population, reported their religion was Roman Catholic. The second largest religious grouping was Church of Ireland or England, Anglican and Episcopalian with more than 124,700 people. The number of people who stated they had no religion increased to more than 736,000, or 14% of the population. This was up 63% since Census 2016. There were also large increases in the number of people whose religion was Orthodox (up 65% to over 100,000), Islam (up 32% to almost 82,000), and Hindu (up 141% to just over 33,000).

Among pre-school aged children (0 to 4 years), 65% were Roman Catholic while 16% had no religion. Of those aged 5 to 9 years, 72% were Roman Catholic with 11% having no religion. People aged 25 to 29 years were less likely to be Roman Catholic (53%) than other age groups. They were also the age group with the highest proportion of people with no religion (26%).

Most of the statistics in this publication are reported on a usually resident and present basis and, unless stated otherwise, exclude visitors and people absent abroad on the night of the census.

Profile 5 is the fifth in a series of eight themed reports on Census 2022.