The State’s population grew by nearly 90,000 last year, according to new figures published by the European Commission.
The population rose from 5.35 million at the end of 2024 to 5.44 million at the end of last year, an increase of 88,597.
This is consistent with the 1.5 per cent increase in 2024, but less than the 2.2 per cent increase in 2022 when a wave of Ukrainian refugees led to a population increase of 117,000.
The 1.6 per cent increase in the population is four times the EU average, which stands at just 0.4 per cent, according to Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Commission.
The population of the EU27 bloc rose from 449,489,862 to 450,646,971, an increase of 1.57 million year-on-year.
Eurostat figures showed that the population of the Irish State was 500,000 more than what it was in 2019, when the population stood at 4,940,311.
In that time, the foreign-born population of Ireland has grown from 990,469 to 1,267,144 in 2025, an increase of 276,675 people.
Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed the number of foreign employees in the State rose by 218,000 between 2019 and 2024, representing 61 per cent of all jobs growth.
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Before the pandemic hit, just under 22 per cent of employees in Ireland were foreign nationals. By the end of 2024, this had risen to 27.5 per cent. Foreign national employment rose by 45.6 per cent between 2019 and 2024, while the employment of Irish nationals rose by 8 per cent.
Ireland is one of only seven EU countries out of 27 where the birth rate continues to exceed the death rate. Since 2012, Europe’s population growth has been negative as deaths have been greater than births since then.
Eurostat estimates that net migration to the State stood at almost 70,000 last year, but it projects a sharp decrease to 60,000 this year and to just 33,000 by 2030.
The rest of the population increase in Ireland is accounted for by natural increases where more children are being born than people dying.
This is despite a strong decline in fertility rates in the State, which at 1.47 per woman in 2024 – the last year for which figures are available – is well below the replacement rate of 2.1 at which the population remains stable, not accounting for the effects of migration.
Eurostat predicts that the population of the State will reached six million in 2035 and reach 6.5 million by the middle of the century before tailing off as more deaths than births are recorded.
Eurostat predicts that the population of Ireland will be 6.2 million at the end of the century.