Ireland's population passed 5.5 million in 2026, and migration is the main reason. If you are planning a move, the official numbers tell you a lot: who is arriving, which nationalities are getting work permits, which sectors are hiring, and how many people are becoming citizens each year. This article pulls together the most recent releases from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and the Department of Justice, with the year each figure refers to.
Population and migration flows
The CSO's Population and Migration Estimates for April 2026, published on 24 August 2026, put the usually resident population at 5,525,600, up 66,900 or 1.2% in a year. Immigration fell for the second year running but remains high by historical standards, and net migration stayed strongly positive.
Of the 110,600 people who arrived in the year to April 2026, 30,200 were returning Irish citizens (down 4%), 20,700 were other EU citizens (down 18%), 4,300 were UK citizens (down 12%) and 55,500 came from the rest of the world (down 13%). Immigrants are young: 53% (58,300) were aged 25 to 44 and 19% were children under 15. On the way out, 35,400 of the 62,500 emigrants were Irish citizens, a reminder that the country has two-way traffic. The CSO also notes that the population aged 0 to 14 fell below one million for the first time since 2014, while those aged 65 and over reached 891,100, or 16.1% of the total.
Employment permits: who is coming to work
The Department of Enterprise publishes permit statistics monthly, with annual tables released each January. Its 2025 tables, published on 2 January 2026, show 31,044 permits issued in 2025 and 3,432 refused. That is a drop of about 21% from the record 39,390 issued in 2024, driven mainly by a fall in health and ICT permits. India remains far ahead of every other source country.
| Nationality | Permits issued 2025 | Refused 2025 |
| India | 9,947 | 807 |
| Philippines | 3,398 | 335 |
| Brazil | 3,381 | 522 |
| China | 1,922 | 215 |
| Pakistan | 1,453 | 186 |
| South Africa | 1,240 | 209 |
| United States | 1,039 | 80 |
| Zimbabwe | 831 | 138 |
| Nigeria | 726 | 156 |
| Sri Lanka | 631 | 68 |
| All nationalities | 31,044 | 3,432 |
Indian nationals took roughly one permit in three. For comparison, in 2024 the top five were India (13,566), Brazil (4,553), the Philippines (4,049), China (1,962) and Pakistan (1,742), so the Philippines overtook Brazil in 2025 while both fell.
Which sectors hire permit holders
The sector tables for 2025 show health and social work still on top despite a sharp fall, with hospitality, ICT, construction and other services making up the rest of the top five.
| Sector | Permits issued 2025 | 2024 |
| Health and social work | 7,948 | 12,501 |
| Accommodation and food services | 3,499 | n/a |
| Information and communication | 3,630 | 6,788 |
| Construction | 2,031 | n/a |
| Other service activities | 2,087 | n/a |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 1,915 | 2,990 |
| Financial and insurance | 1,424 | n/a |
| Transport and storage | 1,363 | n/a |
Healthcare assistants, care workers and home carers alone accounted for more than 12% of all permits in 2025. In 2024, just over half of new permits were Critical Skills permits, with an average salary of €58,746 for those roles. Monthly figures for 2026 are on the Department's statistics page and are worth checking if you are targeting a specific sector.
Citizenship and naturalisation
Naturalisation has accelerated sharply. The Department of Justice reports that it received 40,479 citizenship applications in 2025, granted 26,400 and refused 377. That follows more than 30,000 decisions in 2024, itself a record, and around 20,000 in 2023. The median processing time to a decision was about 8 months in both 2024 and 2025, down from 15 months in 2023 and 19 months in 2022. Ceremonies, where certificates are handed over, numbered 24 in 2024 and 19 in 2025 up to November.
What the numbers mean for you
- Competition for permits is highest from India, the Philippines and Brazil, but refusal rates are modest across the board: about 1 in 10 applications overall in 2025.
- Health, hospitality, ICT and construction are the sectors most used to sponsoring non-EEA staff, which usually means smoother HR processes.
- Immigration is falling from its 2024 peak, which in a housing-constrained market may ease rental competition slightly, though the population is still growing by over 1% a year.
- Citizenship decisions are now measured in months rather than years, so the 5-year residence clock is the real bottleneck, not the queue.
