Ireland has EU’s highest rate of emigration with one person leaving every six minutes

Figures released by Eurostat show that Ireland has the highest rate of emigration in the European Union (EU). Recent statistics show that one person leaves Ireland every six minutes.

The new figures published by Eurostat, which is the statistical office of the European Union, show that Ireland not only had the highest emigration rate but also the highest birth rate and the lowest death rate for 2012. Despite the high birth rate and low death rate the statistics show that that population of Ireland experienced extremely modest growth due to emigration..

Earlier this year Ireland’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed that 240 people per day, ten people per hour - one person every six minutes - were leaving Ireland. The Irish government has admitted that emigration levels are “at an unacceptable level.”

The CSO’s figures show that 24.6 percent (21,900) of emigrants went to the United Kingdom, 17.2 percent (15,400) to Australia and, according to their graphs, 6.2 percent to the United States. One third of these emigrants are aged between 15 and 24.