Demographic and Social Change in Ireland: A Spatial Perspective

It is widely accepted that Ireland has undergone a very significant transformation since the early 1990s. Since 1991 the population of the Republic of Ireland has expanded by over 20%. Unprecedented and sustained levels of economic growth have served to reverse previous trends of emigration and unemployment, creating a new prosperity but also new challenges including increasing social polarisation and environmental responsibility. Not unlike the Scottish experience, the recent demographic turnaround in Ireland has to a significant extent been driven by net inmigration, including return migrants and economic migrants from the new accession states of central and eastern Europe. In direct contrast to the Scottish experience, however, natural increase has continued to represent a key component of demographic expansion in Ireland, leading to a significantly lower level of age dependenc