Ireland's exodus: By the numbers

Irish voters go to the polls today for a general election — but new evidence suggests that much of the electorate may not stick around for long. The severe financial crisis in Ireland is spurring a wave of emigration that threatens to decimate the country's population. Here, a look at the numbers behind Ireland's exodus:

13.4 percent

The current unemployment rate in Ireland

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

32 percent

Ireland's budget deficit as a percentage of GDP (approximately $227 billion). By comparison, the U.S. deficit this year stands at about 9 percent of its GDP.

$15 billion

Savings the Irish government hopes to make over the next four years, mainly by cutting state pensions and benefits, and raising taxes

100,000

The number of Irish citizens expected to leave the country in the next two years

1,000

The number of Irish citizens currently leaving the country every week. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who is set to become Ireland's next prime minister, called the figure a "national heartbreak."

500

The number of Irish emigrants who returned home every week in 2002, at the height of the "Celtic Tiger" boom

60 percent

The rise this year in visa applications by Irish citizens to Australia

30,000

Number of Irish citizens currently in Australia on a two-year "holiday" visa

44,000

The number of Irish citizens who left the country during the recession of 1989

320,000

The number of Irish citizens who left the country in the ten years after WWII

1 million

The number of Irish citizens who left the country in the ten years after the potato famine of the 1850s

8.17 million

Population of Ireland in 1841

4.22 million

Population of Ireland in 1926, the lowest point in the last 170 years

4.47 million

Current population of Ireland

41 million

Number of Americans who claim "Irish" as their primary ethnicity, according to the 2000 U.S. census

80 million

Approximate number of people around the world who claim Irish descent. This block of people is affectionately known in Ireland as the "Fifth Province."

Sources: Wall Street Journal, ABC News (Australia), New York Times, BBC, Guardian, Central Statistics Office of Ireland