Census of Population and other Population Data

Data Collection Type
National censuses
Organisation

Central Statistics
Office (CSO).

Year established

1926 (and links to data pre-1926
available on the CSO website).

Statement of purpose

To collect information relating to persons and households in the Republic of Ireland to help to plan for services to meet demand in healthcare and education, for example.

Coverage (geographical and temporal)

De facto population.

The delivery and collections of
Census forms span over a 10 week period.
The Census 2016 Quality Report is available on the CSO website here: https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/methods/censusofpopulation/Census_2016_Quality_Report_rev_0918.pdf

Description/Summary

The Census of Population is a collection of information relating to persons and households
in Ireland. The Census of Population statistics are
disseminated through a range of specialised publications, releases and other media.

Data users

Census Data gives government, local authorities,
agencies, service providers and the public,
the complete suite of demographics of the State
at various geographic levels.
Health, Disabilities, Age Groups, Nationalities, Ethnicity,
Housing, Families, Principal Economic Status, Social Class,
Occupational and Industry data are some of the topics available.

Data content

Accommodation; demographics; education;
employment; disability or long term illness;
time and distance of travel to work; school or college;
economic status; Irish language; ethnicity; nationality;
migration and carers.

Data dictionary

Not available.

National-level identifier variables

Not applicable.

Equity stratifiers

The Census has a number of questions
that pertain to Religion, Ethnicity, Education Level,
Occupation and Health among others. Additionally
the Census derive the Socio Economic Group (SEG)
and the Social Class for persons. Further information
on Social Class and SEG is available on the CSO website here: https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-cp11eoi/cp11eoi/bgn/

Data collection methodology

Census - householder completion of census form.

The Census is carried out in 5 years cycles. However due to Covid-19 the schedule Census in 2021 was postponed to 2022.

Clinical coding scheme

N/A.

Size of national collection

N/A.

Publication frequency

Every 5 years.

Accessing data

Interactive tables for the 1996,
2002, 2006, 2011 and 2016 censuses are available on the CSO website.
https://data.cso.ie/#

Open data portal access

No.

Telephone contact
Other comments

Please see link to the Census 2016 results page where demographics are explained in each profile.
https://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2016reports/
Also find all the small area demographics on 11 geographical boundaries available here
https://www.cso.ie/en/census/census2016reports/census2016smallareapopulationstatistics/
and a link to our SAPMAP application here.
https://cso.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4d19cf7b1251408c99ccde18859ff739

Following the Census 2022, detailed results will be available on the CSO website from April 2023