It includes people born abroad to one or more Irish parents and who’ve subsequently moved back.
The latest population diversity data for 2025 shows that 23.3pc of Ireland’s residents had been born abroad.
That’s well above the EU average and ranks Ireland fourth highest among the 27 member states, behind Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus.
The foreign-born total includes people born in other EU member states as well as those born outside the bloc.
Across the EU, the total population stood at about 450 million on January 1 2025, the report said.
Of these, 46.7 million people, or 10.4pc were born outside the EU while 18 million or 4.0pc libe in a different EU country to the one they were born in.
When combined, 64.7 million people or 14.4pc of the population were living in a country other than where they were born.
Ireland’s share is almost nine percentage points higher.
Luxembourg recorded the highest proportion of residents not having their birthplace in the country at 51.5pc, Malta followed at 32.0pc, while Cyprus recorded 27.6pc, Sweden and Austria also reported shares above 20pc.
In comparison, several eastern and central European countries such as Romania, Poland and Bulgaria each recorded lower levels below 4pc.
Separate Eurostat population structure figures show Ireland also has one of the youngest populations in Europe.
The median age in Ireland was 39.4 years, compared with an EU average of 44.9 years, meaning the typical resident in Ireland is more than five years younger than the EU norm.
People aged 65 and over accounted for about 15.7pc of Ireland’s population, below the EU average of 22pc, placing Ireland among the countries with the smallest shares of older residents in the bloc.
Across the EU, the share of those aged 65 and over has increased steadily over the past decade, rising from 19pc in 2015 to 22pc last year, according to the data.
Eurostat’s figures also show the EU’s old-age dependency ratio – the number of people aged 65 and over compared with those of working age reached 34.5pc, it said.
The lowest total age dependency ratio among the EU countries in 2025 was Malta 44pc and the highest was recorded in France with 62.5pc.
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