Press Statement

Preasráiteas

Profile 8 - Irish Travellers Ethnicity and Religion

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) today (Thursday 12th October) publishes Census 2016 Profile 8 Irish Travellers, Ethnicity and Religion. The report shows that the number of Irish Travellers stood at 30,987, representing 0.7% of the general population in April 2016. The report also details how both the proportion and total number of Catholics have fallen since 2011, with Catholics comprising 78.3% of the population in April 2016, down from 84.2% in 2011, while the number of people with no religion (including atheists and agnostics) increased by 73.6% to stand at 481,388 in 2016.

Deirdre Cullen, Senior Statistician, commented: "This report, the eighth of eleven thematic reports of Census 2016 results, provides further insight into the demographic structure of our population, this time looking at religion, ethnicity and Irish Travellers. These themes are examined by age, social class, and household composition. As always all of this information is available on www.cso.ie, where users can also access detailed data for their own area".

Today's full report is available on the CSO website at Census 2016 - Profile 8 Irish Travellers, Ethnicity and Religion

Highlights from Profile 8 Irish Travellers, Ethnicity and Religion

Irish Travellers

Irish Travellers and Age Structure

There were 30,987 usually resident Irish Travellers enumerated in Census 2016, an increase of 5.1% on the 2011 figure (29,495). Almost 60% of Travellers were aged under 25, compared with just 33.4% of the general population. There were just 451 Traveller men aged 65 and over and 481 Traveller females.

Where Travellers live

Travellers were more urbanised than the general population with almost 8 in 10 (78.6%) living in cities or towns (of 1,500 or more), compared with 62.4% of the total population. Dublin city and suburbs had the largest number of Irish Travellers with 5,089 persons. This was followed by Galway city and suburbs with 1,598 persons and Cork city and suburbs with 1,222.

Among towns with 1,500 or more persons, Tuam had the highest number of Irish Travellers with 737 persons, followed by Longford with 730 persons. Navan, Mullingar, Dundalk and Ballinasloe all had 500 or more Irish Travellers in 2016.

Traveller households

There were 8,717 Traveller households (defined as households containing at least one Irish Traveller) in April 2016, an increase of 12.3% on April 2011. Traveller households were more likely to be multiple family, 4.2% compared with 1.3% of the general population, but less likely to be one-person households, 11.0% compared with 23.6%.

Marital status

In April 2016 31.9% of Travellers, aged 15 to 29, were married compared with just over 1 in 20 (5.8%) of the general population. The divorce rate was less than half that of the general population, 2.2% compared to 4.7%.

Education

Educational attainment among Travellers continues to lag significantly behind that of the general population. Among Traveller females, just 13.3% were educated to upper secondary level or above, compared with almost 7 in10 (69.1%) of the general population. Nearly 6 in 10 male Travellers (57.2%) were educated to primary level at most, compared with just 13.6% of the general population. The 167 Travellers with a third-level qualification was almost double the 2011 figure of 89.

Employment/Unemployment

While 10,653 Travellers were in the labour force, the vast majority, 8,541 (80.2%), were unemployed. Almost 1 in 8 Travellers (11.3%) stated that they were unable to work due to a disability, which was almost three times the rate of the general population (4.3%).

Ethnicity

Ethnic composition

"White Irish" remains by far the largest group, accounting for 3,854,226 (82.2%) usual residents. This was followed by "Any other White background" (9.5%), non-Chinese Asian (1.7%) and "other incl. mixed background" (1.5%). The 19,447 persons with Chinese ethnic/cultural background made up 0.4% of the usually resident population, while those of mixed backgrounds (70,603) constituted 1.5%.

Birthplace

The vast majority (94.1%) of White Irish people were born in Ireland. Of the 5.9% (226,078) born elsewhere