Language

Official language
English (99%), Irish (41%)

T-index
0.24%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Other languages
Scots (0.3%), Shelta

Immigrant languages
Polish (119,526 speakers), German (27,342), French (56,430), Japanese (1,309) and Mandarin (15,166)

Most studied languages
French (spoken by 20% of the population), German (7%) and Spanish (3.7%)

Demography

Capital: Dublin
Currency: Euro
Population: 5,03 m
Population density: 72/km2

Economy

GDP: 498.56 billion USD (2021)
GDP per capita: 99,152.1USD ‎(2021) ‎
Exports: $197 billion (2020)

Statistics

Internet users:  99% penetration, 4.95 million
Unemployment rate: 6.2% (2020)
Urbanisation: 63.41% (2019)
Literacy: 99% (2020)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals and dot as decimal separator

Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 00353

Internet Data

Internet users
99% penetration, 4.95 million

Share of web traffic by device
51.27% mobile phones, 45.71% computers (laptops and desktops), 2.98% tablet devices, others 0.05%

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
27.96 Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
65.29 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 97.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 93.1%

Most popular web search engines
Google (96.41%), Bing (1.97%),Yahoo (0.92%), Duckduckgo (0.41%), Ecosia (0.19%), Yandex Ru (0.05%)

Most used social media
Facebook (85.15%),  Twitter(6.48%), Instagram (4.95%), Pinterest (2.21%),  YouTube (0.72%), Tumblr (0.22%)

Social statistics

Life expectancy
85.35 yrs (2020)

Average age of the population
38.2 yrs (2020)

Healthcare Expenditure
6.8% of GDP (2019)

Glass Ceiling Index
55.7 out 100, ranked 21st out of 29 countries

The glass-ceiling index measures the environment for working women combining data on higher education, labor-force participation, pay, child-care costs, maternity and paternity rights, business-school applications, and representation in senior jobs.

Class
Advances in the economic situation of Irish people in recent years have masked the impact of class. Social privilege in Ireland, in any case, is often dictated more by knowing in which circles one should curry favour. In Dublin, many would say that you could tell a person’s class by their postal code – the Dublin 4 or “D4” area being a prime example of neighbourhoods universally considered to be well heeled.

Ethnicity
Many people consider the Travelling People in Ireland as a distinct ethnic group. Travellers have often experienced systemic discrimination, poverty and exclusion. Travelling People have a distinct dialect and follow a nomadic way of life. Since the advances in the Irish economy, Ireland has also become a magnet for immigrant workers from Eastern Europe and Africa. To facilitate the growing diversity of Ireland, in October 2005, the Government introduced the National Action Plan Against Racism, one of the most comprehensive anti-discrimination codes in Europe.

Religion
Catholicism has been a key factor in shaping Irish society and culture. In recent years, however, the influence of the Catholic Church has begun to wane and social values are beginning to converge with those of other European countries, particularly within the younger, urban and more educated population. Church scandals have contributed to this trend. Weekly Mass attendance still hovers around 60%, compared with the European average of 30%; many children also attend Catholic schools. There have been campaigns in recent years, however, to end the broadcast of the Angelus, a Catholic devotion, on RTE (the public broadcaster). Currently it is broadcast every night at 6.00 pm on RTE 1 (TV station) and on Radio 1 at noon and 6.00 pm.

Gender
As a society heavily influenced by Catholicism, the traditional role of mother and wife has dominated beliefs about women in Irish culture and has been enshrined in the country’s Constitution. Up until Ireland’s accession to the European Community in 1973, women were obliged to resign from civil service positions upon marriage. Since then, better education, declining fertility rates and an opportunity to earn higher wages have increased women’s participation in the labour force. Married women, however, have a considerably lower participation rate compared to other European countries; the lack of childcare and discriminatory tax policies are key factors. Occupational segregation is still very marked, and women are frequently found in low-paid, part-time, insecure and “low-skilled” occupations, with very few in senior management. The situation is changing, however, with the election of two women to the role of President within the last fifteen years. Compliance to European Union equal opportunity legislation has also promoted the status of women.