Highlights from the publication, which covers demographics, population health, hospital and primary care, health sector employment, expenditure, and child and adolescent health, include:
- the number of people in Ireland who reported their health as being good or very good (79.9%) in 2024 was the highest in the EU, well above the EU average of 68.4%. Ireland also had the highest rate of self-perceived good health in 2022-2023
- in 2023, life expectancy in Ireland was the eighth highest in the EU, at 82.9 years
- the population has grown by 15.2% since 2016, with the over 65s group increasing by 36.7% between 2016 and 2025
- the total number of consultant and non-consultant hospital doctors employed in the public health service in Ireland increased to 14,468 (62.2% increase) between 2016 and 2025
- the number of nurses and midwives increased to almost 49,000 (36.1% increase) between 2016 and 2025
- between 2015 and 2024, the mortality rate from cancer declined by 13.7%, the mortality rate from circulatory system diseases declined by 28.2%, the mortality rate for ischaemic heart disease declined by 34.6% and the mortality rate from respiratory system diseases fell declined 23.4%
- the proportion of total health expenditure paid for either out-of-pocket or through private health insurance has been reducing in recent years; the government funded 77.7% of total health expenditure in Ireland in 2024
- there has been a sustained and substantial decline in the proportion of current tobacco smokers among young people aged 10–17 years, representing a 79.2% reduction between 1998 and 2022
- the proportion of women having recorded any breastfeeding at the time of discharge from maternity facility increased by 12.7% between 2015 and 2024
This is the seventeenth edition of this easy-to-use reference guide to significant trends in health and health care over the past decade, including population and health status, as well as trends in service provision.
