Ireland's Central Statistics Office (CSO) shared key findings from its Population and Migration Estimates, April 2023 on Monday, September 25.

"Ireland's population was estimated to be 5.28 million, rising by 97,600 people in the year to April 2023," Cathal Doherty, Statistician in Population Estimates and Projections, said.

"This was the largest 12-month population increase since 2008 when the population rose by 109,200."

The CSO noted that the number of Irish citizens was 4,524,600 people, 85.7% of total population.

Inward migrants arriving to Ireland in the year to April 2023 included 30,000 returning Irish citizenshttps://t.co/uwXuMBGER1#CSOIreland #Ireland #Population #PopulationEstimates #Migration #MigrationEstimates pic.twitter.com/8T1iW0r14R

— Central Statistics Office Ireland (@CSOIreland) September 25, 2023

Elsewhere in its findings, the CSO said that there were 141,600 immigrants to Ireland in the 12-month period which was a 16-year high. This was the second successive 12-month period where over 100,000 people immigrated to Ireland. 

Of those immigrants, 29,600 were returning Irish citizens, 26,100 were other EU citizens, and 4,800 were UK citizens. 

The remaining 81,100 immigrants were citizens of other countries including almost 42,000 Ukrainians.

(As of June 6, 2023, there had been 84,613 arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland, according to the CSO.)

Over 64,000 people departed the State in the 12 months to April 2023, compared with 56,100 in the same period of 2022. This was one of the highest figures in recent years, the CSO said.

There was a natural increase of 20,000 people in the State comprised of 55,500 births and 35,500 deaths.

Doherty further said: "There were 806,300 people living in Ireland aged 65 and over in April 2023.

"Those aged 65 and over showed an increase in population share between 2017 and 2023 (increasing from 13.6% to 15.3% of the total), a volume increase of 153,900 people. 

"There were 1,338,700 people living in Ireland aged 45-64 in April 2023. This age grouping also had a rise in population share between 2017 and 2023, growing from 24.1% to 25.3% of the total, a volume increase of 180,800 people. 

"Looking at where people reside, the proportion of the population living in Dublin has increased from 27.6% of the total in 2011 to 28.4% of the total in 2023 and now stands at 1,501,500 people."