This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
For census purposes, a person's place of birth is recorded as the place where their mother lived at the time of their birth. On the census form, people born in Ireland and Northern Ireland were asked to write in their county of birth, while people born abroad were asked to name their country of birth.
Nearly 60% of the 5.1 million people usually resident in the State were living in the county of their birth.
A further 20% were born abroad; this was an increase from 17% in 2016.
Dublin had the highest percentage (25%) of residents who were born outside the State, closely followed by the counties Monaghan (23%) and Donegal (22%).
At 72%, Cork had the highest percentage of people born and resident in the same county.
In contrast, only 32% of Meath residents were born in the county; this was the lowest percentage for any county, followed by the other counties bordering Dublin: Kildare (34%) and Wicklow (35%).
Of the 4.1 million State-born residents, 74% lived in the county they were born in.
Children (aged 0 to 14 years) at 75% and older people (aged 65 and over) at 65% were the most likely to still be living in the county they were born in.
The age group 25 to 44 years had the lowest proportion of people living in the county of their birth (48%).
This same age group had the highest proportion of people born in another country (32%).
The youngest age group (0 to 14) had the lowest proportion of people born in another country (8%).
This section refers to the 1,283,130 people born in one of the 26 counties and who were living in the cities and suburbs of Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
Cork city and suburbs had the highest proportion (87%) of the population born in the same county (Cork).
Of the population born in the State and living in Dublin city and suburbs, the majority (86%) were born in Dublin (county). In addition, 2% were born in Cork, 1% in Galway and the rest in other counties.
Compared with the other cities, Galway city and suburbs had the lowest percentage of population who were born in the county (70%). Dublin-born people made up the next highest proportion of the population living in Galway (6%), followed by Mayo-born residents (5%).
Of the population living in Limerick city and suburbs, 82% were born in County Limerick. The other common places of birth were counties Dublin (3%), Cork (3%) and Clare (3%).
In Waterford city and suburbs, 80% of the population were born in County Waterford. The next most common birthplaces were Dublin and Kilkenny, both at 4%, followed by Cork, Wexford and Tipperary, each at 2%.
In Census 2022, a total of 1.3 million people reported their place of birth as County Dublin.
Of the people born in Dublin, 28% were living in Dublin city, 17% in South Dublin, 16% in Fingal, 11% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown and 27% were living outside of County Dublin at the time of the census.
Among towns not in County Dublin, those with the highest proportion of Dublin-born people were Johnstown (53%) in Kildare, Kilpedder (52%) in Wicklow and Ratoath in Meath (52%).
Other towns with 45% or more of the population born in Dublin included Kill and Kilteel in Kildare, Blessington, Enniskerry and Kilcoole in Wicklow and Stamullen and Dunboyne in Meath.
The Electoral Divisions not in County Dublin containing the highest proportion of Dublin-born people were Kilbride (51%) in Wicklow, Ratoath (51%) in Meath and Kill (50%) in Kildare.
Of the Electoral Divisions in County Dublin with a population of over 5,000 people, Tallaght-Tymon (84%) and Clondalkin-Moorfield (82%) both in South Dublin, along with Ayrfield (81%) in Dublin City had the highest proportion of population born in the county.
Map 2.2 was updated on 15 August 2023 due to an error detected in the CSO Electoral Divisions boundary file. Figures for the CSO Electoral Divisions Dalkey-Coliemore and Shankill-Rathsallagh were corrected.
The Electoral Divisions in Dublin with the highest proportion of people born in another county were predominantly in the south of the county.
These included Stillorgan-Deerpark, Terenure A and Foxrock-Beechpark, with around a fifth of the population in these areas born in another county.
Electoral Divisions in the North Inner city of Dublin had the highest proportion of people who were born outside the State, with several areas having more than half of the population born in another country.
Map 2.3 was updated on 01 September 2023 due to an error detected in the CSO Electoral Divisions boundary file. Figures for the CSO Electoral Divisions Dalkey-Coliemore and Shankill-Rathsallagh were corrected.
Explore census data from county level to neighbourhood (Small Area) level
