The number of people born in the Republic of Ireland who are now living in Australia has surpassed 100,000 for the first time.
A net addition of 8,500 Irish people in 2024 pushed the Republic’s population living in Australia from 94,540 in 2023 to 103,080 last year, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
It is the highest recorded number of people from the Republic living in Australia, surpassing the 96,360 people living there in 2013 at a time when the after-effects of the Celtic Tiger crash were still reverberating.
The latest increase comes at a time when there is full employment in Ireland. The number of Irish in Australia has almost doubled this century. In 2000 it was about 55,000 and stayed around that figure until 2008.
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The collapse of the Celtic Tiger saw a huge influx of Irish people to Australia. In 2007 there were 58,000 people from the Republic living in Australia, by 2013 that figure peaked at 96,360.
As the economy improved at home, the numbers fell to 85,660 by April 2021 as immigration to Australia dried up because of Covid-19.
Pent-up demand after Covid-19 saw a spike in emigration from Ireland to Australia, the numbers going from 85,660 in 2022 to 94,540 in 2023 and now 103,080 for the latest available figures, which run up to April last year.
Sinn Féin has suggested the influx of young Irish people into Australia is a direct response to the housing crisis at home. Party president Mary Lou McDonald told Irish emigrants in Australia three years ago that they had been badly let down by the housing system at home.
However, Australia has a severe housing crisis of its own, with many of the same problems as in Ireland. There is a lack of supply and a lack of affordability, especially in the bigger cities. Rents have ballooned since Covid-19, increasing by 36.1 per cent.
In Sydney the average household would have to earn €160,000 to purchase the median home, which is now priced at €800,000. Housing is the major issue in the Australian general election taking place on Saturday.
In addition to those born in the Republic, some 25,920 residents born In Northern Ireland were living in Australia in 2024, up 860 on the previous year.
Some 8.6 million of Australia’s population of 27.1 million were born elsewhere, 31.5 per cent of the total.
The Irish-born population is not in the top 10 of migrant nations to the country.
[ No, the Irish who come to Australia are not the ‘worst’Opens in new window ]
The number of English people living in Australia, which was more than a million in 2014, dropped to 963,560 last year. England remains the country with the largest number of residents living in Australia.
There are 916,330 Indians, 700,120 Chinese and 617,960 New Zealanders in Australia.
