00:03Welcome to The Cube, Euronews' fact-checking show.
00:06Today we talk migration.
00:08Take a look at this.
00:10You're not going to believe this.
00:11In the space of six hours, the stats are the same.
00:1599% of Ireland's population growth is foreign-born.
00:201% is Irish.
00:21So, is it true that nearly all population growth in Ireland last year
00:26was driven by foreigners?
00:28The Central Statistics Office says that Ireland's population grew by nearly 67,000 people
00:34between April 2025 and April 2026.
00:38About 28% of that growth came from natural increase,
00:41meaning that there were almost 19,000 more births than deaths.
00:46The majority of all births, about 70%, were to Irish citizens,
00:51according to other CSO figures, for the whole of 2025.
00:55However, it is true that that rate is rapidly falling
01:00from 76% in 2022 to 74% in 2023, 72% in 2024, and 70% last year.
01:09And then, of course, there's migration.
01:12The latest estimates say that there was a net flow
01:15of around 53,000 non-Irish migrants coming to the country.
01:19So, around 72% of the total growth.
01:23At the same time, more Irish citizens left the country
01:27than those who arrived, with a net loss of around 5,000.
01:31So, migrant arrivals are definitely contributing to Ireland's population growth,
01:36and that's also been certified by Eurostat,
01:39which classified Ireland as a country where population growth
01:42is mainly due to net migration.
01:45This aspect is even more pronounced in countries such as Spain and France,
01:50where Eurostat says the driver of population growth is indeed migration.
