Ireland
population: Natl estimate (1 Apr 2025) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 16 metros tracked
🗺️ Geography16 metros
Ireland metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.
Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.
🏙️ 16 tracked metros
📋 At a glance
- Official languages
- English, Irish
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Government
- Unitary state
- Legislature
- Oireachtas
- Constitution
- 1937, 23 amendment events since
- Demonym
- Irish
- Time zones
- Greenwich Mean Time, UTC±00:00
- Driving side
- Left
- Calling code
- +353
- Internet TLD
- .ie
- ISO 3166
- IE
- Established
- 1937
- Highest point
- Carrauntoohil (1,039 m (3,409 ft))
- National anthem
- Amhrán na bhFiann
Facts via Wikidata.
🗣️ Languages of Ireland
English first; 3 languages share the country; 2 official.
| Language | Share | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 98% | Official | CLDR, country |
| Irish | 22% | Official | CLDR, country |
| French | 13% | None | CLDR, country |
Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.
- English reach
- 98%
- Tier 3 country
- Effective languages
- 1.0
- Official-language gap
- 2%
- English is spoken by 98%
📰 In the news3 stories
The Athletic · 29 Sept 2026
The story behind Israel vs Ireland: bowed heads, black armbands and a one-man boycottFurther reading from the day's section on Manchester City, 114 Charges, and the Bill Coming Due.
The Athletic · 25 Sept 2026
Explained: Why two Republic of Ireland vs Israel matches have become so controversialThe Athletic unpacks the political backdrop to the fixtures and why they are being staged in Hungary and Serbia.
Defector · 1 Aug 2026
"After 75 Years Of Losing, Mayo Shocked The World And Shook A Stadium"Further reading from the day's section on sports business and the long read.
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.
Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships
Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer
🏛️ Leadership History25 leaders · click to expand
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.
⚔️ Wars and conflicts2 interstate wars · click to expand
| Conflict | Years | Against | Combat deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Irish War of Independence | 1919–1921 | United Kingdom | — |
| Easter Rising | 1916 | United Kingdom British Army,Dublin Metropolitan Police,Royal Irish Constabulary | — |
Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”
👥 Population over time
Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The grey line is the whole island, before partition, 1800 to 1920. It is drawn separately, and never joined to the main one, because it is a different territory: most of the fall between the two is the border, not the people. Nothing in the cards above is computed from it. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Note that people and share of world can move in opposite directions. A country can grow steadily and still become a smaller part of humanity, which is what happened to almost every rich country after 1960.
👥 To 2100
The UN’s probabilistic projection for Ireland: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.
What drives it
Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.
💰 Billionaires13 · $72.1B combined · click to expand
Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.
🏆 National Teams
Ireland on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.
National Teams Champions
Every major championship won by Ireland's national teams, newest first. 28 in total.