Spotlight report on Roma in Ireland published
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From: Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth
- Published on: 8 January 2025
- Last updated on: 19 March 2025
The Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Roderic O’Gorman, has today published a report on the Roma community in Ireland.
The report examines data available from the most recent Census of Population (2022), in which Roma was included as a separate category on the question of ethnicity for the first time.
Speaking about this report, Minister O’Gorman said:
“This government is committed to improving the health and wellbeing of ethnic groups in Ireland. In July of this year, my department published our National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy II (NTRIS II), aiming to keep our commitment to change attitudes and remediate inequalities for Travellers and Roma living in Ireland. We aim to comply with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality and Human Rights Duty, and to propose ways to improve the quality of data collected on these communities, consistent with the upcoming National Equality Data Strategy.
"Today’s report gives us a closer look at the Roma community in Ireland – their family composition, their health and their education, as well as an overview into Ireland’s overall attitudes to people of varying ethnicities. I am encouraged that access to specific data on the ethnicities of the people in Ireland will help in improving the services and supports available for these communities.”
Some of the key findings from the report are:
- there are 16,059 Roma living in Ireland, as per the most recent Census of Population (2022). This is the first time that Roma was listed as a separate ethnicity and therefore the first time that an official figure has been recorded
- the majority of Roma living in Ireland are located in Dublin (6,144) and Cork (1,251). There are a smaller number of Roma living in each of the other 24 counties
- the overall majority of Roma living in Ireland are of good health, matching the same trend as the general population. 87% of Roma in Ireland noted their health as being good or very good. In comparison, 83% of the general population of Ireland noted their health as being good or very good
- the majority of Roma in Ireland have completed upper secondary education. Roma youth have a rate of transfer from primary to post-primary education of 89%, which is lower than the general population transfer rate of 96%, but higher than the transfer rate of the Traveller community of 83%
- the majority of the Roma population over the age of 15 years old are persons at work, accounting for 61% of the population in this age range. Just under 10% of the Roma population over the age of 15 look after the home/family
- in terms of employability, it was noted that 63% of those surveyed believe that identifying as a member of the Roma community would put a person at a disadvantage when being hired for a role. The Roma community was the second highest ethnic group that those surveyed believe would face disadvantage when being hired for a role (members of the Traveller community was the highest ethnic group, with 67% of those surveyed believing identifying as a member of the travelling community would put a person at a disadvantage)
This report on Roma in Ireland is the fourteenth report in a series of Statistical Spotlights. The data in this Spotlight was sourced from the CSO, the Census of Population 2022, Pobal, Nasc, the Department of Education, and Pavee Point, amongst others.