Europe22 August, 20263 min read
Immigration To Ireland Falls 12% Between April 2025 And April 2026, CSO Says
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Immigration declined 12% to about 111,000 arrivals in the year to April 2026. Net immigration stood at about 48,000 for the year ending April 2026.
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Ireland migration shifts
Immigration to Ireland declined by 12% between April 2025 and April 2026, with the Central Statistics Office estimating that 110,600 people immigrated to the country in the 12 months to April, a 12% decrease on the previous year. The CSO figures cited by the Irish Examiner show that net migration stood at 48,100, down from 58,700 in 2025, and the decrease was attributed to “a larger fall in immigration than emigration”. RTE.ie reported that the population increase to 5.526 million in the 12 months to April 2026 came alongside an estimated 62,500 people departing the State, marking a fall of 5% or 3,100 compared with the same time last year.
The same CSO release said 891,100 people living in Ireland were aged 65 and over in April, while 992,400 people aged under 14 were living in Ireland in April 2026, the first time that age bracket fell under 1 million since 2014. In Dublin, RTE.ie said the population rose to 1,597,700 people in April 2026, with the share of the country’s total rising to 28.9%.
Citizenship rules debated
As the Government considers increasing the residency requirement for Irish citizenship from five to eight years, Doras CEO John Lannon told Newstalk Breakfast that the proposals are “harsh” and “unnecessary”. Lannon argued that “These proposals seem harsh, they're unnecessary, they serve no useful purpose,” and said the current rules are tough enough, adding that “it's already very difficult to get Irish citizenship.” He said he was speaking “to a woman whose application was rejected because she went to her father's funeral abroad eight months before applying.”
When asked what was ‘harsh’ about the proposals, Lannon replied that he did not believe the time people have to be resident in Ireland before they apply should be extended from five to eight years. Lannon also said he was “really concerned” about how the Government treats migrants, noting that “tougher regulations for asylum seekers have been introduced, while support for Ukrainians has been withdrawn.”
EU returns and NGO row
Ireland’s migration stance is being tested in a dispute over returns to first-entry states, with Euronews reporting that Ireland seeks returns to Italy and that Sea Watch 5 was detained in Naples with a 45-day administrative detention order and a 7,500-euro fine. Euronews said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi reiterated that operations must be coordinated exclusively by competent states, while the German NGO told Italian media, “but not the so-called Libyan maritime rescue coordination centre, a puppet authority”. On the wider EU Pact, Euronews reported that Piantedosi said there was a reduction in landings and a doubling of returns thanks to agreements with Tunisia and Libya, and that Italy blocked the return of 80,000 migrants under the Meloni government.
The BBC, meanwhile, framed Ireland’s migration picture as continuing to fall from the Ukraine war peak, saying an estimated 111,000 people came to live in the country in the year to April while 62,500 left, leaving net immigration of approximately 48,000. The BBC also said that between March and December 2022 almost 68,000 people arrived in the Republic of Ireland from Ukraine under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive, and that the centre-right coalition has continued to toughen its migration enforcement and gradually withdraw emergency accommodation from Ukrainian refugees.