Census 2022: Number of Irish speakers increases but only 10% can speak it very well

The number of people who indicated that they could speak Irish has increased but only a very small minority say they speak it “very well”, according to Census 2022.

A summary report of the findings shows the number of people who indicated that they could speak Irish increased by 6 per cent between 2016 and last year to 1.9 million, or 40 per cent of the population aged three or more.

Of the people who said they could speak Irish, almost 624,000 spoke it daily within and outside the education system. This accounts for 33 per cent of the Irish speaking population, compared with 36 per cent in 2016. A total of almost 72,000 of the daily speakers used Irish outside the education system, down 1,835 on the 2016 figure.

The proportion of people speaking Irish weekly and less often remained stable.

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Among those who could speak Irish, one in four (472,887) indicated that they never spoke the language. Of the 1.9 million Irish speakers, just 10 per cent said they spoke the language “very well”, with a further 32 per cent speaking it “well”.

A majority (55 per cent) of people who indicated that they spoke Irish reported that they did not speak the language well. Younger people were more likely to say could speak the language well.

For example, 63 per cent of people aged 15-19 who spoke Irish reported that they spoke it either very well or well. In contrast, 27 per cent of Irish speakers aged 50-54 recorded that they spoke Irish either very well or well.

The census results also show the level of Irish spoken by county. It shows that a fifth of the Irish speakers in counties Galway and Donegal spoke the language “very well”, the highest percentage at county level. Kerry and Monaghan, both at 12 per cent, were also among the counties with the highest percentage of people who spoke the language very well.

Education

The census figures also show that education levels among the population are rising. For example, the age at which people ended their full-time education has increased over recent censuses.

There was a drop in the number of people who left school before they were 15 years old, down 18 per cent since 2016 to 150,000 By contrast, there was a sharp increase in the number of people who finished full-time education when they were 25 years or older, up 48 per cent to nearly 375,000. More people are also securing higher levels of qualifications.

Similarly, the proportion of the population who finished their full-time education at second level fell from 32 per cent in 2011 to 23 per cent last year. In contrast, the proportion of the population who finished their full-time education after completing an ordinary degree or higher was up from 25 per cent in 2011 to 34 per cent.

Between 2016 and 2022, there were large increases in the numbers of people with third level qualifications. An honours degree or equivalent was the highest level completed by more than 450,000 people who had finished their full-time education, up 36 per cent since 2016.

Childcare

The findings also include data on the numbers in childcare. Just under one in three children under the age of 15 were in childcare last year. The most common type of childcare used was a creche or similar facility, which provided care to almost 140,000 children in April of last year.

The second most common type of childcare was provided by an unpaid relative or family member, which was the case for more than 92,000 children.