EUROPEAN MIGRATION NETWORK. ANNUAL REPORT ON STATISTICS ON MIGRATION, ASYLUM AND RETURN: IRELAND, REFERENCE YEAR 2003

Table 1 shows recorded immigration and emigration flows and total population for the years 1999-2005. In the 1990s Ireland changed from being a country of net emigration to being a country of net immigration. For example, in the year to the end of April 1990 about 56,000 people left Ireland and about 33,000 people entered so that there was a net loss of population of nearly 23,000 people. The total population in April 2003 was estimated at 3.98 million – the highest figure since 1871 when the Census for that year recorded a population of 4.05 million. The estimated number of immigrants in 2003 was 50,100 while emigrants numbered 18,500 in the same period. Both flows were down slightly compared with the previous twelve-month period