Census returns over the last century and a half, across a range of countries, paint the changing picture of Irish emigration, both in terms of scale and the destinations chosen. The shares of younger Irish emigrants living in the rest of the EU, and in Australia or New Zealand, both now exceed the share in the US. [ Irish emigration has changed. Of the 100,000 Irish people aged 20-34 living abroad, almost 10 per cent returned to Ireland in the census year. Over time, with the ending of mass permanent emigration, the number of elderly Irish-born people living abroad will continue to fall.

Source: The Irish Times March 23, 2026 19:14 UTC