Central Statistics Office

Life Events and Demography Division 

Cathal Doherty/Sean O'Connor

Central Statistics Office,

Skehard Road

Blackrock

Cork

IRELAND

Data and metadata are transmitted to Eurostat by the Member States in the framework of the Unified Demographic Data Collection which is in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 862/2007 and Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 and their implementing regulations.

This Euro SDMX Metadata Structure is used for the purpose of quality reporting. The definition of the quality concepts and guidelines are described in the European Statistical System Handbook for Quality Reports.

The regional breakdown of the Member States in the regional demographic tables is done under the most recent NUTS classification. There are agreements between Eurostat and Candidate countries as well as between Eurostat and EFTA countries, for which statistical regions have been coded in a way that resembles NUTS.

For more information on the versions in force, please see: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/nuts/.

Not applicable.

Number of persons.

Population, live births and deaths data are available at national and regional level of geographical detail.

The relevant calendar reference year.

Not applicable.

Data is collected at unit (person) level.

The reference date for population data is the end of the reference period (midnight of 31 December).
The reference period for vital and dual events data is the calendar year in which the events occurred. The reference period for migration flow data is the calendar year in which the migration occurred.

The data is governed by the Eurostat regulation No 1260/2013 for the population and vital statistics.  In an Irish context the CSO is mandated to collect this data under the statistics act 1993. 

Not available.

The Statistics Act 1993

The Act provides a comprehensive mandate for compiling official statistics on an independent and objective basis. The Act protects the confidentiality of the information provided to the CSO, which may only be used for statistical purposes; and confidential data may not be disseminated or otherwise communicated to third parties, including Government Departments or bodies.

Data is anonymised prior to publication

For data on the acquisition and loss of citizenship, the following Statistical Disclosure Control rules were applied:

Primary suppression of all cells was performed using a minimum cell size of less than 5 persons. In cases where a male or female cell value could be used to determine a supressed cell, secondary suppression was performed, in these cases the total value is presented (once it represented 5 or more persons).”

https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/releasecalendar/.

https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/releasecalendar/.

The Population and Migration Estimates and Vital Statistics publications are flagged on an annual release calendar and a weekly release calendar. Publications are disseminated via the CSO website (www.cso.ie). A press conference is held on the day of release for population and migration estimates. 

Population and Migration Estimates are published Annually.

Vital Statistics (based on registrations) are published Quarterly as well as an Annual publication based on occurrence.

Population and Migration Estimates (year ending April) release are available as a electronic release (available in August) and the databank (PXSTAT) on the CSO website is updated regularly. Vital Statistics releases also published electronically on the CSO website and on the databank.

See 10.1.

Population and Migration Estimates: https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/population/populationandmigrationestimates/

Births & Deaths: https://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/birthsdeathsandmarriages/

Statbank on the CSO website

Population and Migration Estimates: https://data.cso.ie/product/PME

Births: https://data.cso.ie/product/VSBO

Deaths: https://data.cso.ie/product/VSDO

Not applicable for population and migration estimates.

Researchers that become Officers of Statistics are given access to mortality data for specific research projects.

Some social media used e.g. X.

See quality report for Population and Migration Estimates.

Please see below link to all quality reports. Vital Statistics Quality reports on births, deaths are included here.

Population

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/populationandmigrationestimates/.

Deaths

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/deathsregistration/.

Live Births

https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/qualityreports/livebirthsregistrationqualityreport/.

The population and migration estimates release is the primary source of population estimates in the period between each Census of Population. The publication provides estimates of population stock by sex, age, region and nationality.  It also provides migration flows by origin and destination as well as other social indicators such as migration by educational attainment and principle economic status.

Accurate population estimates are critical with regards to providing evidence based data for future planning and policy formulation.

Other CSO sections which make use of the population data include: LFS and Vital Statistics.

External users who make significant use of the population estimates data include, but are not limited to: 

The ESRI, The Department of Finance, The Department of Health, The Department of Children and Youth Affairs, The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, The Oireachtas, Special Interest Groups (particularly those with an interest in migration) and National media organisations.

Users provide feedback at the annual press conference and through the dedicated email account: demography@cso.ie.

By using the LFS all residents in private households, regardless of status, are covered by the survey. All registered Vital Statistics data collected.

According to Article 4 (2) of the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014, each year Member States shall provide the Commission (Eurostat) with data at national and regional level as described in Annex II and related standard reference metadata (in the metadata structure definition defined for the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure) for the reference year within 12 months of the end of the reference year. According to Article 3 (2) of the Commission Regulation (EC) No 862/2007, Statistics on international migration, usually resident population and acquisition of citizenship shall be supplied to the Commission (Eurostat) within 12 months of the end of the reference year.

Latest data was transmitted on time.

Data is generally comparable.  Breaks in series can occur when NUTS regions are revised etc.

The migration estimates are compiled with reference to movements in other migration indicators such as the number of Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers allocated to non-Irish nationals and the number of visas issued to Irish nationals to a number of the destinations including Australia, US and Canada. In addition, data on National Insurance numbers (equivalent to PPS numbers) issued to Irish nationals in the UK is referenced.

Analysis of the difference between the stock of third-country nationals and residence permits issued

Those aged under 16 do not require a residence permit but are counted in the population stock questionnaire.

**Persons from Switzerland/EFTA countries do not require a residence permit but are counted as third-country nationals in the Population stock questionnaire. 

Reason 1: UK citizens don't require a residence permit to live in Ireland

Reason 2:  Residents from Switzerland/EFTA countries do not require a residence permit but are included as third-country nationals in migr_pop1ctz return.

Reason 3:  Those aged under 16 do not require a residence permit but are counted in the population stock questionnaire.

Reason 4 (Not Currently Quantifiable):  The Demography regulation 1260/2013, counts those with an ‘intention to stay’ >12 months as ‘usually resident’. Therefore all those who expressed an intention to stay longer than 12 months would have been counted as usually resident for the purpose of the Census. It is possible that a number of these respondents who (on Census day) held permits of duration <12 months had an ‘intention’ to renew them upon expiration therefore meeting the ‘usual residence’ criteria for Census purposes.

Reason 5 (Not Currently Quantifiable):  At present Ireland does not carry out exit checks upon the expiry of a valid permit. It is possible that there were a number of third-country nationals in the Census who were counted as ‘usually resident’ but did not hold a valid permit. The Census does not enquire as to the legal status of respondents.

Data coherent across all tables. Coherence adhered to, based on the most current data available.

Population and migration estimates are collected as part of the Labour Force Survey data collection and as such incur no additional costs. Vital Statistics data is collected by means of administrative data, as such no survey costs are incurred.

Population and Migration Estimates are subject to revision once definitive results of the census become available. Population and migration data for the years 2017-2021 inclusive have been revised as a result of the 2021 Census results.

Provisional vital events data is based on registration and when vital events data is published based on the occurrence of the event, then the data becomes final.

Population and Migration Estimates are subject to revision once definitive results of the census become available. Population and migration data for the years 2017-2022 inclusive have been revised as a result of the 2021 Census results.

Provisional vital events data is based on registration and when vital events data is published based on the occurrence of the event, then the data becomes final.

Source of Migration data

The principal source of information for the estimation of the gross annual migration flows is the Labour Force Survey(LFS), which also provides the basis for the classification of the flows by sex, age group, origin/destination and citizenship.

The migration estimates are compiled with reference to movements in other migration indicators such as the number of Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers allocated to non-Irish nationals and the number of visas issued to Irish nationals to a number of the destinations including Australia, US and Canada.  In addition, data on National Insurance numbers (equivalent to PPS numbers) issued to Irish nationals in the UK is  referenced.

Calculation of annual population estimates

The annual population estimates for mid-April were calculated by trending forwards the previous Census of Population data. For example, the base population data for estimating the April 2022 figure was the number of males and females in each region by single year of age and nationality as established by the 2021 Census. From this base, each person was aged by one year, births for the period were added and deaths were subtracted. 

The estimated number of immigrants was then added and the number of emigrants was subtracted. Allowance was also made for estimated inter-regional migration in arriving at the final 2022 figures. The end result of this overall process provided the population estimate for April 2022 which in turn will provide the base population for the subsequent year and so on. The population estimates are subject to revision once the definitive results of the next census become available.

The population by nationality estimates are made possible by trending forwards the previous Census of Population and incorporating gross migration flows by nationality based on responses in the QNHS.  Births by nationality are estimated using the distribution of the nationality of babies as recorded in the 2011 census, while deaths by nationality are also estimated based on recent census results on the nationality distribution of the population by single year of age.

Migration by origin/destination

This release provides for the first time estimates of migration to and from Australia and Canada as individual countries of origin/destination. This is part of the ongoing work by the CSO to improve data in this area, which in recent years has included new data on the nationality of emigrants and an estimate of the total population by nationality.

Usual residence population concept

For the purpose of this release the population concept of usual residence has been used, i.e. all persons usually resident and present in the State on census night plus absent persons who are usually resident in Ireland but are temporarily away from home and outside the State on census night. All persons are classified according to their region of usual residence.

Census is usually carried out every 5 years. LFS and Vital Statistics are carried out every quarter.

Population and Migration Estimates

The principle source of the migration estimates (which in turn feed into progress population quarterly estimates, using the most recent census as a base year, is the labour Force Survey (LFS).

A new sample based on the 2016 Census of Population was introduced on a phased basis (over five quarters) from Q2 2019 and was fully operational in Q2 2020. The new sample is stratified using administrative county and the Pobal HP (Haase and Pratschke) Deprivation Index and consists of 32,500 households per quarter.

A two-stage sample design was used. In the first stage 1,300 blocks were selected using Probability Proportional to Size (PPS) sampling. In the second stage households were selected using Simple Random Sampling (SRS). This ensured each household in the sample frame had an equal probability of selection.

Households are asked to take part in the survey for five consecutive quarters and are then replaced by other households in the same block. Thus, one fifth of the households in the survey are replaced each quarter and the QNHS sample involves an overlap of 80 % between two consecutive years.

The survey results are weighted to agree with population estimates broken down by age, sex and region. The survey is considered to be highly accurate in terms of its key estimates. In terms of the migration data, the survey is considered to be reasonably accurate, though no error calculations have been made.

Vital Statistics

Data received from administrative sources weekly from the General Registration Office.

All population estimates data is captured electronically. All checking procedures are carried out on a quarterly basis.

All Vital Statistics data forwarded from the General Registration Office weekly is checked in the Central Statistics Office to ensure the data received is correct.

See items 18.1-18.4. Population and Migration Estimates.

Data for vital events are received electronically on a weekly basis from the General Registration Office (GRO), file is decrypted and captured on the CSO data capture system.  Edits are in place to identify any inconsistencies. Cause of death coding is done automatically and edits highlight certain causes of death codes to look at manually. All unnatural deaths and inquest cases are attributed an underlying cause of death code manually based on the World Health Organisation;'s ICD-10 classification. No imputation or estimation occurs in respect of deaths or births. All data is provided from administrative data collected by the GRO.

Population and Migration Estimates are subject to revisions once the definitive results from the census is available. The preliminary estimates in data collection and compilation conform to national and international standards.

No additional comments.