Republic of Ireland

Ireland ([ˈɪʁlant], official German name; Irish Éire [ˈeːrʲə] listen^{? /i}, English Ireland) is an island nation in Western Europe. It comprises about five-sixths of the island of the same name, as well as a number of smaller islands which are offshore from it, mostly in the west of the country. The Republic of Ireland is bordered to the north by Northern Ireland and thus by the United Kingdom. In the east lies the Irish Sea, in the west and south the country is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. The capital and largest city of Ireland is Dublin, located in the eastern part of the country. About one third of the 4.9 million inhabitants live in the Dublin metropolitan area. Ireland has been a member of the European Union since 1973. The greater part of the population professes the Roman Catholic faith.

Long impoverished and therefore subject to emigration, Ireland has now transformed itself into a highly modern, and in some areas multicultural, industrial and service society. It has 10 million foreign tourists annually. In 2018, Ireland was the second richest country in Europe by gross domestic product per capita (adjusted for purchasing power), and the fifth richest in the world.

Geography

Physical geography

Dublin Cork Galway Limerick Waterford Navan Clonmel Lifford Tralee Wexford Castlebar Carlow Mitchelstown Wicklow Dundalk Ennis Mullingar Tullamore Cavan Sligo Carrantuohill NORTHERN IRELAND   ATLANTIK IRISH SEA   CELTIC SEA LoughRee   LoughDerg LoughCorrib   LoughMask LoughConn

In the interior of the island there are mainly plains, enclosed on the outside by hilly terrain.

The river Shannon, which runs from north to south, is the longest of the island with about 370 km. In the plains are numerous lakes, which significantly shape the landscape. Lough Corrib is the largest lake in Ireland and after Lough Neagh, which belongs to Northern Ireland, the second largest of the Irish island.

The highest mountain is with 1039 m the Carrauntoohil (other names Carrantuohill, Carrantual, Carntuohil). It is located in the southwest of the island in the Macgillicuddy's Reeks.

There are a number of national parks across the country.

Cities

In 2016, 63.5% of the population lived in cities or urban areas.

Largest cities in Ireland (according to census 2016)
	Rank	Name	County or City	Inhabitants	Rank	Name	County or City	Inhabitants
Dublin Cork	1	Dublin	Dublin City	553.165	11	Tralee	Kerry	20.869	Galway Limerick
	2	Cork	CorkCity	125.622	12	Ennis	Clare	20.475
	3	Galway	Galway City	079.504	13	Wexford	Wexford	20.167
	4	Limerick	Limerick	058.319	14	Sligo	Sligo	17.355
	5	Waterford	Waterford	048.369	15	Letterkenny	Donegal	16.017
	6	Dundalk	Louth	032.288	16	Athlone	Westmeath and Roscommon	15.686
	7	Drogheda	Louth	029.471	17	Leixlip	Kildare	15.400
	8	Navan	Meath	028.399	18	Carlow	Carlow	14.473
	9	Bray	Wicklow	027.760	19	Clonmel	Tipperary (South)	14.257
	10	Naas	Kildare	021.493	20	Killarney	Kerry	14.017

Population

Ireland's population declined dramatically in the mid-19th century. Crop failures, famine, and reprisals by British rule caused the population to shrink from about 6.5 million (including the population of the northern parts of the country, which also belonged to the United Kingdom) in 1841. By the time of the Republic's independence in 1921, the population of only the more densely populated Northern Ireland was about three million. Many Irish emigrated, mainly to the United Kingdom and the United States. Independence from the United Kingdom from the early 1920s led to gradual improvements in living conditions, but the population continued to decline, although not quite as much. The number of people of Irish descent abroad is estimated at over 40 million, almost ten times Ireland's current population.

The low point was reached in the 1960s with around 2.82 million inhabitants. Since then, the population has developed positively again and, at around 4.5 million inhabitants (over six million including Northern Ireland), has returned to the level of the mid-19th century. Although the increase is primarily through immigration, it is also due to excess births. Ireland's fertility rate is 1.9 children per woman and is one of the highest in Europe. Life expectancy was 80.9 years (women 83.0 and men 78.7) between 2010 and 2015, according to UN data. Ireland's median age of 36.4 years is one of the lowest in Europe. In 2017, 16.9 percent of the population were migrants. The most common countries of origin were the UK (280,000 people), Poland (140,000) and Lithuania (40,000).

The population is predominantly English speaking, although there is a (resurgent) increase in the Celtic language Irish, which is also the original language of the Irish.

Country name

The officially used German name is Ireland. The official proper name is Irish Éire or English Ireland. The term Republic of Ireland is often used to distinguish Ireland from Northern Ireland (Irish Poblacht na hÉireann, English Republic of Ireland).

Poets and Irish nationalists of the 19th century used Erin in English as a romantic name for Ireland. Erin's Isle was often used. Thus the female personification of Ireland is also named Erin (along with Hibernia). Erin is the Hiberno-English derivation of the Irish word Éirinn. Éirinn is the dative of the Irish word for Ireland, Éire; the dative is used with prepositions such as "go hÉirinn" - "to Ireland", "in Éirinn" - "in Ireland", or "ó Éirinn" - "from Ireland". The figure of Erin is also depicted on the coat of arms of Montserrat; many inhabitants of this British overseas territory came from Ireland.

National language

There are two official languages: English and Irish; the latter is also called Irish Gaelic in German. As a living language, Irish is spoken only by a minority, mainly in the so-called Gaeltacht.

Population development

Year	Population	Year	Population
1841	6.528.799	1946	2.955.107
1851	5.111.557	1951	2.960.593
1861	4.402.111	1961	2.818.341
1871	4.053.187	1971	2.978.248
1881	3.870.020	1981	3.443.405
1891	3.468.694	1991	3.525.719
1901	3.221.823	2002	3.917.203
1911	3.139.688	2011	4.588.252
1926	2.971.992	2016	4.761.865
1936	2.968.420	2019	4.941.000

Religion

Religions in Ireland 2016
Religion			Percent
Roman Catholic		 	78,3 %
Anglican		 	2,7 %
Other Christian denomination		 	2,9 %
Islam		 	1,3 %
Other religion		 	2,4 %
No religion		 	9,8 %
Not specified		 	2,6 %
Distribution of religions (Census 2016)

In 2016, 78.3 per cent of Ireland's population professed the Roman Catholic faith, while 2.7 per cent belonged to the Anglican Communion. About 1.3 percent of the population were Muslims, 9.8 percent stated that they did not belong to any religion. There are also smaller Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran churches. With 1591 members (2005), the Quakers are a comparatively small community, but it is the second largest in Europe after that in the United Kingdom. The Presbyterian Church has strong roots, especially among the descendants of Scottish settlers. It is therefore most prevalent in Northern Ireland.

According to a representative poll conducted by the Worldwide Independent Network and the Gallup International Association between 2011 and 2012, ten percent of Irish respondents described themselves as "staunch atheist," 44 percent called themselves "non-religious," and 47 percent said they were a religious person. Between 2005 and 2011/12, the proportion of Irish people describing themselves as religious fell by 22 percentage points (from 69 per cent to 47 per cent). Meanwhile, according to a representative Eurobarometer survey, 73 per cent of people in Ireland believed in God in 2005, with a further 22 per cent believing in some other spiritual force. Four per cent of respondents believed in neither God nor another spiritual force, and one per cent were undecided.

The Roman Catholic Church in Ireland consists of four ecclesiastical provinces with the archbishoprics of Armagh, Dublin, Tuam and Cashel and their suffragant dioceses. The Catholic primate of all Ireland is the Archbishop of Armagh. The Anglican Church of Ireland is divided into the two ecclesiastical provinces of Armagh and Dublin and their dioceses. The seat of the Anglican Primate of All Ireland is also Armagh.

Education

Ireland's education budget was around €9.5 billion in 2017. For the next few years, the budget is expected to increase only slightly. In order to provide the increasing number of pupils with enough teachers in the current and the coming years, about 2400 additional teachers should be hired in 2017.

The Irish education system has three levels: primary school, secondary school and higher - "third level" - education.

The public primary schools, most of which are run by the Catholic Church, do not charge school fees. Private schools, the number of which has increased continuously in recent years, sometimes charge considerable school fees. However, the teachers employed there are paid by the Irish state. A government initiative to gradually remove schools from the sponsorship of the Catholic Church and to convert them into non-denominational or multi-denominational institutions is making only slow progress. At the same time, public pressure is growing from parents who have great difficulty in finding a school within reasonable distance for children who are not baptized Catholic.

The results of the central state final examination ("leaving certificate") determine access to the country's higher education institutions. In 2015, 56,587 students took the final examination. Of these, 47,654 applied for university places. The sharp decline in performance in basic school skills identified by the OECD between 2000 and 2009 has since been halted. The latest PISA study shows a slight upward trend again for Ireland. Compared to the European partner countries, Ireland is in the middle of the field. This is due to the award of bonus points for mathematics and science subjects. In the 2015 PISA rankings, Ireland's students were ranked 17th out of 72 countries in mathematics, 19th in science and 5th in reading comprehension. Irish students were among the better performers of all participating countries.

One of the government's main objectives is a comprehensive reform of the Irish education system. To this end, the requirements for the "junior certificate" (secondary school leaving certificate I) and the "leaving certificate" (secondary school leaving certificate II) are to be changed first. Another step in this direction is the reform of the university admissions system. A new points system for the allocation of university places has been established. It is to be applied for the first time for the graduating class of 2017. Incentives for students who, when choosing subjects, opted for accumulating the required number of points in rather easier subjects instead of pursuing their inclinations and paying attention to qualifications needed for their careers are thus to be removed.

Traditionally, trade unions have had a considerable influence on the design and further development of the school system. Primary and secondary school teachers alone are organised in three unions, university professors and lecturers in two. The reform of the "junior certificate" is opposed by one large teachers' union. Union members are boycotting the 2016 implementation, particularly the new approach in Ireland of having teachers assess their own students in a way that is relevant to the exam.

Population pyramid of Ireland 2016


Population development in millions of inhabitants