Census 2011

ardmacha

Initial results from Census 2011 show that the population of the State increased by 341,421 to 4,581,269 since the previous census in 2006, a rise of 8.1%.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) this morning released its first figures gleaned from the nationwide survey held on April 10 - just 12 weeks ago - saying it was crucial to let people know what they had learned.

“It is very important to us that we produce early results so that the Irish public can make the connection between the census form they filled out only a couple of months ago and the important statistics that are available as a result," said CSO statistician Shaun McLaughlin.

The total population on census night was 4,581,269, representing an annual increase of 1.6% since 2006, compared to 2% per annum in the period 2002-2006.

Officials said the strong growth was primarily due to a high number of births.

For the moment, only headcount totals for males and females are available, covering some 3,440 areas.

Scanning and processing of the two million census forms has begun and the first definitive results are due to be published next March, within a year of census day.

“These early results are based on the summary counts for each enumeration area which were compiled by the 4,854 enumerators," Mr McLaughlin explained.

"These clerical summaries have been returned to the CSO in advance of the census forms and the results published today are based on this information.

"The enumerators did a great job getting their summaries back to us, which allows us to prepare these early results of the census. We’d like to thank the entire census field staff for all their hard work and perseverance over the course of the census field campaign”.

The results demonstrate a wide variance of population growth between counties, with the amount of residents in Laois, for example, having grown by 20% - more than twice the rate for the State as a whole.

Other counties showing strong population growth were Cavan (13.9%), Fingal (13.8%), Longford (13.3%), Meath (13.0%) and Kildare (12.7%).

As in 2002-2006, Cork city and Limerick city were the only two of the 34 administrative counties in the State to register a fall in population during the 2006-2011 period.

All counties experienced positive natural increase (births minus deaths) in the period 2006-2011, with the rates highest in Fingal, South Dublin, Kildare and Meath. The counties with the
lowest rates were Cork city, Roscommon and Mayo.

Net inward migration was measured at 118,650 between 2006 and 2011, but while Ireland continued to experience strong net inward migration for the early years of the period, this was followed by a switch to net outward migration in the latter years,

Meanwhile in a reversal of the situation in 2006, when there were slightly more males than females, there are now more females than males in the country with 981 males for every 1,000 females.

sarumite

ardmacha wrote: »

Meanwhile in a reversal of the situation in 2006, when there were slightly more males than females, there are now more females than males in the country with 981 males for every 1,000 females.

Time to repeal bigamy laws?

RichardAnd

sarumite wrote: »

Time to repeal bigamy laws?

IF such a trend continues then I believe it will become the duty of every Irish man to abandon the notion of monogamous releationships in order to ensure the continuation of the Irish race...

Back to reality, the reason for skeq in the ratio is probably due to emigration. Most of the unemployed are men so more of the emigrants will be men too. Simple really.

Hill Bicks

Huge unemployment large numbers of young Irish leaving the state yet we are still experiencing a huge population boom... I wonder how that is a happening. Must be all the staying in people are doing either that or we are being conned and we need to shut our boarders get the Irish back to work and open them again when we can cope with the numbers...Like all other sane nations do during recessions..but were different eh

gigino

heard something on the radio as well about the percentage of empty houses in the country.

Wonder how accurate that statistic is - I know of 3 empty houses in the country and no census form or letter was ever pushed through the letterbox / the owners never spoken to about it.

n97 mini

Presumably most of that population growth is immigration?

sarumite

n97 mini wrote: »

Presumably most of that population growth is immigration?

I remember reading somewhere (i know, not the best source) that Ireland had one of the higher birthrates in Europe.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

RichardAnd

sarumite wrote: »

I remember reading somewhere (i know, not the best source) that Ireland had one of the higher birthrates in Europe.

RTE, two days ago.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0628/birth.html

n97 mini

sarumite wrote: »

I remember reading somewhere (i know, not the best source) that Ireland had one of the higher birthrates in Europe.

I may have missed the detail in the original post: a net figure of 119,000 immigrants between 2006 and 2011.

seamus

n97 mini wrote: »

Presumably most of that population growth is immigration?

No, it's mostly births. When births and deaths are offset, there is a 240,000 natural increase over the period. Immigration accounts for about 30% of the increase.

n97 mini

seamus wrote: »

No, it's mostly births. When births and deaths are offset, there is a 240,000 natural increase over the period. Immigration accounts for about 30% of the increase.

Yes, see my post above your's.

PARKHEAD67

sarumite wrote: »

I remember reading somewhere (i know, not the best source) that Ireland had one of the higher birthrates in Europe.

Gets you a house sure and sets you up for a life of State benefits:mad:.

SharpshooterTom

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe? I'm assuming because abortion is outlawed in this country?

Nijmegen

Gnobe wrote: »

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe? I'm assuming because abortion is outlawed in this country?

Our abortion rate, as I recall from other studies, is not much lower than other EU countries, to account for the kind of rapid increase we observe.





I would think it simply has more to do with younger population having the income to support children, and a culture of having them. We'll slow down in time, it's just the natural cycle.

Cybercubed

Gnobe wrote:

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe? I'm assuming because abortion is outlawed in this country?

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-has-highest-birth-rate-in-the-eu-2-164772-Jun2011/

Nearly one quarter (24 per cent) of births in 2009 were to mothers themselves born outside of Ireland.

Don't mean to sound like a dailymail article, as I'm ok with immigration, but that's a big part of the answer. Not that that's a big deal since I'm not a racist. Free movement around the world for all I care, it's strange though because the fertility rate in Poland/Eastern Europe is only 1.25 or something. I presume non-EU immigrants have higher birth rates therefore.

lmimmfn

probably a good boost in births due to childrens allowance and good benefits for single mothers on the dole( 32% of the births were to single mothers but who knows what percentage of those were working ).

Also, i think every recession causes a baby boom due to people having to have their fun at home

Cookie_Monster

since when is Tunisia in Europe

PARKHEAD67

Gnobe wrote: »

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe? I'm assuming because abortion is outlawed in this country?

Benefits. Simple as that. Our government is much too keen to bend over backwards for "single mothers" and the like. Nice house, nice cushy lifestyle without ever having to work a day on taxpayers money. While the father lives in the house as well anyway. The system is there to be screwed and by God its being screwed left, right and centre.

seamus

PARKHEAD67 wrote: »

Benefits. Simple as that.

Hardly.

There would be a number of components to it. As said, we have a large, young, immigrant population, which would lead to high birthrates from them. We also have a large young irish population born during the baby boom years of the 70's and early 80's. These people have all arrived into child-rearing age in the last five/ten years, causing a statistical "bulge" in birth figures. The same bulge will reappear in 25 years time when their kids start reproducing.

Counter-intuitively I also believe that the economic recession would cause a rise in birth rates. During the boom years, people would have been career-focussed, looking at making large amounts of money, enjoying their freedom to take multiple holidays per year, go out for dinner every other night and otherwise spread their disposable income around. Children put a stop to that (for the large part), so in the good times, people will put child-rearing on hold.
In the bad times, there's more time spent at home trying to occupy onesself, and in the asbence of 20 holidays a year and with more people at home voluntarily or involuntarily, their circumstances are better suited to child rearing, even if they have less cash.

OMD

PARKHEAD67 wrote: »

Benefits. Simple as that. Our government is much too keen to bend over backwards for "single mothers" and the like. Nice house, nice cushy lifestyle without ever having to work a day on taxpayers money. While the father lives in the house as well anyway. The system is there to be screwed and by God its being screwed left, right and centre.

Don't be so ridiculous. We have a higher birthrate because we have more women in the fertile reproductive age. We have a much younger population than the rest of Europe and have one of the highest populations of Females between the ages of 15-40.
Abortion makes only a tiny diference that is not statistically significant. Some believe we have a higher abortion rate than other EU countries. That may be so as again due to our young fertile population more women are around to get pregnant and thus either keep the baby or have an abortion. .

n97 mini

Cybercubed wrote: »

http://www.thejournal.ie/ireland-has-highest-birth-rate-in-the-eu-2-164772-Jun2011/


Don't mean to sound like a dailymail article, as I'm ok with immigration, but that's a big part of the answer. Not that that's a big deal since I'm not a racist. Free movement around the world for all I care, it's strange though because the fertility rate in Poland/Eastern Europe is only 1.25 or something. I presume non-EU immigrants have higher birth rates therefore.

Since the Irish Born Child loophole was closed in the referendum I wonder how many women arrived off the boat in labour in 2009.

liammur

Some people who have emigrated are still recorded as being in the country, their parents filled them in.

n97 mini

liammur wrote: »

Some people who have emigrated are still recorded as being in the country, their parents filled them in.

Why would they do that? It clearly states, multiple times, only list people present in the house on the night.

Hill Bicks

Would anyone here in their right mind go to Greece right now to find work?
So why have 100,000 people come to this bankrupt little Island whos shocking unemployment rate been splashed all over the world news for the last three years!!! Absolutely mind boggling. Yet there are still people with their head in the sand afraid to face the reality that we are being fleeced and taken for the fools we are.

Chucky the tree

Hill Bicks wrote: »

Would anyone here in their right mind go to Greece right now to find work?
So why have 100,000 people come to this bankrupt little Island whos shocking unemployment rate been splashed all over the world news for the last three years!!! Absolutely mind boggling. Yet there are still people with their head in the sand afraid to face the reality that we are being fleeced and taken for the fools we are.

Because of are ridiculously high minimum wage compared to other EU countries. When the last time an irish person delivery a take away to your door? Rock up to a McDonalds at 3am in the morning and count how many Irish people are working there. It's because Irish people refuse to do these jobs for minimum wage and instead are far happier claiming the dole.

Hill Bicks

Chucky the tree wrote: »

Because of are ridiculously high minimum wage compared to other EU countries. When the last time an irish person delivery a take away to your door? Rock up to a McDonalds at 3am in the morning and count how many Irish people are working there. It's because Irish people refuse to do these jobs for minimum wage and instead are far happier claiming the dole.

You need to rock down to your local post office or certainly one on the northside of Dublin and see how many claiming the dole are not Irish. Its a real eye opener my friend.

Chucky the tree

Hill Bicks wrote: »

You need to rock down to your local post office or certainly one on the northside of Dublin and see how many claiming the dole are not Irish. Its a real eye opener my friend.

And? They could have worked here for years paying tax and are perfectly entitled to pay the dole.

Nijmegen

Hill Bicks wrote: »

You need to rock down to your local post office or certainly one on the northside of Dublin and see how many claiming the dole are not Irish. Its a real eye opener my friend.

Or we could take a look at the statistics........ What's with the increase in knee jerk, uninformed quasi racism around here lately?

ei.sdraob

The population rise is very interesting

2 views spring to mind


positive: more people leading to bigger economy over time provided they all get education and jobs and somehow the massive cultural and fiscal issues are addressed (and not kicked down for the younger generation to sort out!)

negative: more people in a shrinking economy becoming poorer on average, sort of like we used to subdivide fields in the olden days, leading to emigration and history repeating

later12

seamus wrote: »

I also believe that the economic recession would cause a rise in birth rates. During the boom years, people would have been career-focussed, looking at making large amounts of money, enjoying their freedom to take multiple holidays per year, go out for dinner every other night and otherwise spread their disposable income around.

I am not really convinced about this. From 2000 to 2008 there was a successive rise in birth rates in all years but two of those: 2004 and 2005.

Then in 2008, we reached a peak, and in 2009, births actually dropped slightly.



Now new figures suggest that the birth rate fell again in 2010. There was an article about this in the Irish Times which expands on the matter
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2011/0629/breaking31.html

The number of births registered in Ireland fell again last year, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

Overall, there were 73,724 births recorded in 2010, down 554 on the previous year.

While the number of births registered remains high by European standards, this marks the second consecutive annual decrease following the high of 75,065 in 2008.

As for why the birth rate is so high, I think seamus is right to point to the age profile issue. The median age in Ireland is 34, the youngest in Europe, so it should be no great surprise that we have the highest birth rate, 25 - 34 traditionally being the most prolific age group in terms of making babies.

As for benefits, yes I do think benefits come into it, but only perhaps for a specific age group and only for those of a specific social background. Have a look at the following break-down



It is interesting that fertility rates of 15-19 year olds increased y-o-y up until 2008, when the economic situation worsened. We cannot say that the worsening economic situation was the cause of that, it might have been down to any number of reasons. But because the rise was so consistent up until the financial crash, it cannot be ruled out as a reasonable possibility.

n97 mini

Nijmegen wrote: »

Or we could take a look at the statistics........ What's with the increase in knee jerk, uninformed quasi racism around here lately?

Is it "quasi racism" to suggest some non-Irish might be on the dole? Or is it quasi policital correctness to be suggesting it might be?

Nijmegen

n97 mini wrote: »

Is it "quasi racism" to suggest some non-Irish might be on the dole? Or is it quasi policital correctness to be suggesting it might be?

I think it has more to do with the air of 'dem foreigners er takin ur jibs, ur dole and, emm, er wimmin' - No statistics given, and when they are silence ensues.

Foreign people who came here when we needed them and filled jobs we needed done and paid taxes largely went home when the recession hit, and a small proportion of them stayed and claim the dole they paid into a social fund for just like you and I.

Or should we cut PRSI on foreign workers on the understanding that they go home when we have a recession?

johnnyskeleton

Gnobe wrote: »

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe? I'm assuming because abortion is outlawed in this country?

As one of the more sparsely populated countries in Europe (we still have less people now than we did 150 years ago), a high birth rate is no bad thing.

Irish women are laying back and thinking of Ireland.

johnnyskeleton

Hill Bicks wrote: »

Would anyone here in their right mind go to Greece right now to find work?
So why have 100,000 people come to this bankrupt little Island whos shocking unemployment rate been splashed all over the world news for the last three years!!! Absolutely mind boggling. Yet there are still people with their head in the sand afraid to face the reality that we are being fleeced and taken for the fools we are.

Or possibly because they are Irish who used to work abroad and are now coming home due to poor employment prospects abroad and figure they may as well move home for a bit.

ei.sdraob

Gnobe wrote: »

Why exactly do we have high birth rates compared to europe?

Because we are still a developing country, and have more in common with Nigeria than Scandinavia (and not just when it comes to politics)

Taxi Drivers

There are some interesting links to some commentaries on the census results on a post on Irisheconomy.ie.

This post was written by Stephen Kinsella

Three related posts readers of this blog should be interested in.
First, IrelandafterNama show and describe the geographic variation we see within the preliminary Census results.

Second, the ever-excellent NAMAWineLake gets sociological on us in a fascinating post on growth of household sizes and why we need an extra 17,000 houses a year.

Third, Seamus Coffey thinks about what an extra 100,000 people means for our economic indicators.

n97 mini

Nijmegen wrote: »

a small proportion of them stayed and claim the dole they paid into a social fund for just like you and I.

Is it quasi racism to suggest some non-Irish might have drawn more out of the system than they paid in? To suggest it is is quasi politically correctness.

Nijmegen

n97 mini wrote: »

Is it quasi racism to suggest some non-Irish might have drawn more out of the system than they paid in? To suggest it is is quasi politically correctness.

Ah, so you propose a system whereby you get back precisely what you put in?

Ok, I look forward to my gold plated dole. And to hell with young people.

We needed workers. We got them. The majority of them didn't claim their dole and just left when their job went (their PRSI contributions therefore subsidise ours.)

They all paid their tax when working, just like Irish people do when abroad.

Some people seem to believe we should take in foreigners, take their tax, when we need them for economic growth, and then show them the door when things go south.

Well, I hope no foreign government gets that idea about Irish people abroad.

n97 mini

Nijmegen wrote: »

Ah, so you propose a system whereby you get back precisely what you put in?

Did I propose anything?