This statistic shows the biggest cities in Ireland in 2022. In 2022, approximately 0.56 million people lived in Dublin, making it the biggest city in Ireland.

The island of Ireland is split into 32 different counties, and from 1800 until 1921 the whole island was a part of the United Kingdome of Great Britain and Ireland (although Britain had been a controlling presence on the island for considerably longer than this). In 1921 the island was split into two separate states, where the six counties with the highest population of Protestants formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the other 26 counties became the Independent Republic of Ireland. From 1821 until 1841, the population of these 26 counties was growing steadily, until the Great Famine from 1845 to 1849 swept across the island, particularly devastating the west and south.

The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. People in the west and south of Ireland were particularly dependent on potatoes, and these areas were affected more heavily than the north and west, where flax and cereals were the staple. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly reliant on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels.

The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained some independence from Britain in 1921, establishing an Irish Republic in the 26 counties. There was a lot of conflict in Ireland in the early 1900s, through the War of Independence and Irish Civil War, however the population of the Republic began growing again from the 1960s onwards as the quality of life improved and the emigration rate declined. The population was at it's lowest from 1926 to 1971, where it remained at just under three million, but in the following fifty years the population has grown by over two million people.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 4.1, families, family members and children in families. Attributes include family size by number of families, number of persons and number of children (e.g. 2 persons (No. of families), 3 persons (No. of persons), 5 persons (No. of children)). Census 2016 theme 4 represents Families. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

Settlements Ungeneralised - National Statistical Boundaries - 2015

In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns, as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

This dataset is provided by Tailte Éireann – National Mapping Division

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 3.1, population aged 3+ by ability to speak Irish. Attributes include population breakdown by ability to speak Irish (e.g. yes, no, not stated). Census 2016 theme 3 represents Irish Language. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

In 1821, Ireland's population was just over 6.8 million people. During this time, the entire island was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Acts of Union in 1800. From the graph we can see that the population enjoyed steady growth between 1821 and 1841, and it rose by almost 1.4 million people in this time. However the Great Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, had a devastating impact on the population, causing it to drop from 8.18 million in 1841 to 6.55 million in 1851. The Great Hunger The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly dependent on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels. Road to recovery The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained independence from Britain in 1921, although the six counties with the largest Protestant populations formed Northern Ireland, which is still a part of the United Kingdom today. In spite of the conflict that overshadowed Ireland for much of the twentieth century, which claimed the lives of thousands of people (particularly during the Northern Irish Troubles), and despite Ireland's high emigration rate, the population began growing again in the second half of the 1900s. The population was at it's lowest from 1926 to 1961, where it remained around 4.3 million, but in the following half-century the population grew by over two million people, reaching 6.4 million in 2011, although this number is still lower than in 1821. Gender stats The difference between the male and female populations throughout Ireland's recent history has also remained relatively low. The largest difference occurred in 1831, where there are 170,000 more women than men, although these figures do not include military personnel which would reduce the difference significantly. The gap then remains under 60,000 throughout the twentieth century.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 3.2, Irish speakers aged 3+ by frequency of speaking Irish. Attributes include population breakdown by frequency of speaking Irish and sex (e.g. daily within education system - males, weekly only outside the education system - females). Census 2016 theme 3 represents Irish Language. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO.In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 9.1, population aged 15+ by sex and social class. Attributes include population breakdown by social class and sex (e.g. skilled manual - males, non-manual - females). Census 2016 theme 9 represents Social Class and Socio-Economic Group. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

From 1821 until 2011, the male and female populations of the 26 counties of the modern-day Republic of Ireland grew at a relatively similar rate, however some fluctuations did occur. During this time, the entire island of Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Acts of Union in 1800. This graph shows the populations of the 26 counties that would later form the Republic of Ireland in 1921, and does not include the six counties that became known as Northern Ireland.

As we can see, both populations follow a relatively similar trend throughout their respective histories. In the first three entries, women outnumber men by 70,000 to 120,000, although these figures do not include military personnel which would narrow this margin. Both populations fall at a similar rate during and after the famine, however the male population does fall slightly faster, possibly due to an increased rate of emigration among males. Another point where both populations differ is in the early twentieth century, where the female population declines in a relatively smooth curve, although the male populations peak in the census data before and after both world wars. From 1956 onwards both populations follow a very similar trend, and grow at the same rate. The difference in population sizes never exceeds 30,000 people, until the final entry in 2011 where the population of men is 2.27 million and the population of women is 2.31 million.

Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Dublin, Ireland metro area from 1950 to 2025.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 2.4, population by religion. Attributes include population breakdown by religion (e.g. catholic, other religion, no religion). Census 2016 theme 2 represents Migration, Ethnicity and Religion. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

In 2023, the urban population of the Republic of Ireland was approximately 3.4 million, while the rural population was around 1.88 million. Although the urban population of Ireland is currently bigger than the rural population, this was not the case in 1960 when there were approximately 272,450 more people living in rural areas than urban ones.

Analysis of ‘URA47 - Working Population of the Five Cities and Their Suburbs in Ireland and the remainder for the State’ provided by Analyst-2 (analyst-2.ai), based on source dataset retrieved from http://data.europa.eu/88u/dataset/b11cb669-a5d4-4cdc-b8c3-908542ee15e6 on 12 January 2022.

--- Dataset description provided by original source is as follows ---

Working Population of the Five Cities and Their Suburbs in Ireland and the remainder for the State

--- Original source retains full ownership of the source dataset ---

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and Settlements boundary data (generalised to 20m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 2.2, the population usually resident in Ireland by ethnic or cultural background. Attributes include population breakdown by ethnicity or cultural background (e.g. Asian or Asian Irish, White Irish). Census 2016 theme 2 represents Migration, Ethnicity and Religion. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. In order to distinguish between the urban and rural population for census analysis, the boundaries of distinct settlements need to be defined. This requires the creation of suburbs and extensions to existing cities and legal towns as well as delineating boundaries for settlements which are not legally defined (called Census towns). From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of fifty or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres there was a nucleus of thirty occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or twenty on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre. Census town boundaries where extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary. To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low density one off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria. In Census 2011 a new Census town was defined as being a cluster with a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, and where there was evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 Census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on Tailte Éireann mapping and orthogonal photography was taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc. Extensions to the environs and suburbs of legal towns and cities were also constructed using the 100 metre proximity rule applied to Census towns. For census reports, urban settlements are towns with a population of 1,500 or more, while settlements with a population of less than 1,500 are classified as rural.

This horizontal bar chart displays urban population (people) by capital city using the aggregation sum in Ireland. The data is filtered where the date is 2021. The data is about countries per year.

Area < 0.4 km2 or population >100 but < 5000 inhabitants. All municipalities and other built-up areas estimated to be important by their number of inhabitants and/or their outstanding localisation. Those built-up areas, which have less than 100 inhabitants but are main villages or cities of the regional/local administrative units, are included. The NAMN1 attribute stores the name of the populated place in the official primary language spoken in that populated place and administratively relevant.This dataset is provided by Tailte Éireann

This dataset contains administrative polygons grouped by country (admin-0) with the following subdivisions according to Who's On First placetypes:
- macroregion (admin-1 including region)
- region (admin-2 including state, province, department, governorate)
- macrocounty (admin-3 including arrondissement)
- county (admin-4 including prefecture, sub-prefecture, regency, canton, commune)
- localadmin (admin-5 including municipality, local government area, unitary authority, commune, suburb)

The dataset also contains human settlement points and polygons for:
- localities (city, town, and village)
- neighbourhoods (borough, macrohood, neighbourhood, microhood)

The dataset covers activities carried out by Who's On First (WOF) since 2015. Global administrative boundaries and human settlements are aggregated and standardized from hundreds of sources and available with an open CC-BY license. Who's On First data is updated on an as-need basis for individual places with annual sprints focused on improving specific countries or placetypes. Please refer to the README.md file for complete data source metadata. Refer to our blog post for explanation of field names.

Data corrections can be proposed using Write Field, an web app for making quick data edits. You’ll need a Github.com account to login and propose edits, which are then reviewed by the Who's On First community using the Github pull request process. Approved changes are available for download within 24-hours. Please contact WOF admin about bulk edits.

Between 1821 and 1921, the entire island of Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Act of Union in 1800. This graph shows only the population of the six counties of Ireland that would go on to become Northern Ireland. The population was just under 1.4 million in 1821 and grew to 1.7 million in the next twenty years.

Between 1845 and 1849 the Great Famine devastated the overall population of Ireland, causing the deaths of approximately one million people, and causing a further million to emigrate. Although the famine affected the population of the west and south of Ireland much more severely than the north, the population of the six counties still fell by over 200,000 people between 1841 and 1851. The population then continued to fall, reaching it's lowest point in the 1890s where it was 1.2 million. The Northern Irish population then grows slowly until the mid to late 1900s, during which time the state of Northern Ireland was founded in 1921. The population the reaches over 1.54 million in the 1960s, before it falls again in the 1970s. This drop in population coincides with the outbreak and the most violent decade of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which was a conflict that dominated Northern Irish daily life for decades. However, from 1981 onwards the population grows by 70,000 to 12,000 every ten years, surpassing it's pre-famine level in the 1990s.

This theme includes all OpenStreetMap features in this area matching ( Learn what tags means here ) :

tags['place'] IN ('isolated_dwelling', 'town', 'village', 'hamlet', 'city') OR tags['landuse'] IN ('residential')

Features may have these attributes:

• name
• name:en
• place
• landuse
• population
• is_in
• source
• name:ga

This dataset is one of many "https://data.humdata.org/organization/hot">OpenStreetMap exports on HDX. See the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team website for more information.

This feature layer was developed by the Central Statistics Office and represents the percentage of Census 2016 population living in settlements of 20,000 persons or more by sex, age and disability who live within 500 metres of a public transport stop.The methodology for this indicator is as follows: The coordinates of all public transport stops (Irish Rail, Luas, Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann) were downloaded from the Transport for Ireland website, link to data. Using the road network from the Tailte Éireann National Map and the ArcGIS Network Analyst tool the shortest distance path was calculated for each dwelling enumerated in the 2016 census to the nearest public transport stop. The resulting output was merged with the main Census of Population 2016 dataset to identify all persons who resided within 500 metres proximity of their nearest public transport stop and to get the relevant breakdowns of the population.Only population within large settlements (e.g. 20,000 or more) were in scope as the metadata for 11.2.1 makes reference to persons having access to public transport facilities with frequent services. The data published for this indicator is based upon the assumption that large settlements would have a greater likelihood of pubic transport services operating on a regular basis during peak times each day.