1.2 Changing demographic context

The changing demography of Ireland was one factor cited by the Cohort 24 scoping

review in the rationale for a new birth cohort (Counihan et al. 2023). We can use the

results of the Irish Census in 2011 and 2022 to look in more detail at some of those

changes since Cohort 08 were aged 3 (in 2011).

2 For example, fitness watches to measure physical activity

First, it is apparent that there was a large increase in the overall population of Ireland

from 4,588,252 in 2011 to 5,149,139 in 2022 (CSO Table F3001).3 However, the

percentage of the population aged 0-4 years decreased over the same period from

7.8% to 5.7% (Table F1002). In 2022, there were 68,156 one-child family units whose

only child was aged 0-4 years, a decrease from 95,694 in 2011 (Table F3008) despite

the overall increase in population – and there were similar patterns of decline in the

number of multiple-child family units where either the eldest or youngest child was

aged 0-4 years (Table F3009). This corresponds to a decline in the overall birth rate,

which had been 74,033 in 2011 but had dropped to 54,483 by 2022 (Table VSA04).

Family structures