Non-Irish citizens account for 11 per cent of Meath population

Non-Irish citizens accounted for 11 per cent of Meath's population on Census night last year according to the latest profile released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which focuses on Diversity, Migration, Ethnicity, Irish Travellers and Religion.

Polish citizens made up the largest group of non-Irish citizens residing in the county at 3,492 followed by Romanian citizens (3,174), Lithuanian (3,033) and the UK (2,767).

Nationally there were more than 631,000 non-Irish citizens, which was 12 per cent of the population. The number of dual-Irish citizens, which is when you are a citizen of two countries at the same time, in the county increased from 4,322 in 2016 to 7,865 in 2022.

The largest dual-Irish citizenships included Irish-US (1,091 people), Irish-UK (1,042) and Irish-Polish (903). There were more than 170,500 dual-Irish residents in Ireland in 2022.

In terms of migration, there were 7,296 people living in Meath in April 2022 who had moved to the county in the year before the Census.

This included 5,107 people who had moved from elsewhere within Ireland, and 2,189 people from outside the State. A further 5,861 people had moved within the county in the year before the census.

There were 989 Travellers in Meath in Census 2022, compared with 971 in 2016, an increase of two per cent. This included 472 females and 517 males. There were 32,949 Travellers in Ireland, compared with 30,987 in 2016, an increase of six per cent. This included 16,777 females and 16,172 males.

On the question of religion, more than 160,000 people in the county or 72 per cent were Catholic. This was down from 82 per cent in Census 2016.

Nationally, 69 per cent stated they were Catholic, compared to 78 per cent in 2016. The other most common religions in Meath included Orthodox (6,691), Church of Ireland (with 4,498 people) and Islam (3,184).

There were almost 29,200 people who stated they did not have a religion, which was up from almost 15,800 in Census 2016, an increase of 85 per cent. They made up 13 per cent of the county’s population, compared with eight per cent in 2016.

Commenting on the results, Brendan Murphy, Statistician in the Census Division, said: “Profile 5 provides detailed information on the range of citizenships among the Irish population, including breakdowns by age and sex as well as by county and town. It shows the recent immigration to Ireland and migration within Ireland.

"The number of people that moved to Ireland in the year to Census night 03 April 2022 rose by nine per cent to more than 89,500 people compared with the same period in Census 2016.