There was a 16% decrease in the number of immigrants arriving in Ireland in the 12 months to April 2025 as 125,300 came to live in the State, according to the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office.
It was the fourth successive year when there were more than 100,000 people coming to live in the country.
It means net migration, the number of people arriving less those leaving, was 59,700, a drop of almost 20,000 on the previous year.
Of the immigrants, 31,500 were returning Irish citizens, 25,300 were other EU citizens, 4,900 were UK citizens and the remaining 63,600 were from other countries.
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Today's CSO figures show there was a 96% surge in the numbers coming from the US as 9,600 came to live in Ireland, up from 4,900 in the previous 12-month period.
Meanwhile, there was a fall in the number of arrivals from the UK, with 11,600 people arriving in the 12 months to April this year compared with 20,500 in the previous 12 months.
Arrivals from countries outside of the EU, UK, US, Canada and Australia also saw a drop off, with 68,000 arriving in the given 12-month period, down from 84,500.
There was a fall in the numbers emigrating to live abroad for the first time since 2020 with 65,600 people departing the State.
There was a natural increase in the population of 18,600 with 54,400 births and 35,800 deaths over the 12-month period.
The CSO said it estimated that the overall population here rose by 78,300 and now stands at 5,458,600.
It noted that 13,500 people went from Ireland to live in Australia, an increase of 27%, which was the highest level of emigration to the country since 2013.
Meanwhile, 6,100 left for the US, a rise of 22%.
Statistician with the CSO Eva Leahy said that there was notable increases in the amount of people going from Ireland to Australia.
"Our figures would be looking at people who are going for a minimum of 12 months.
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"We don't know the intention of the person leaving, but we can see that, even though we had 13,500 people leaving to go to Australia, we also saw 10,000 people returning from Australia in the same 12 months gone," Ms Leahy said.
Ms Leahy noted the 6% decrease in the amount of people leaving Ireland.
"They went to a variety of different countries. Around 25% went to other EU countries, 20% went to Australia, another 20% to the UK. About 16% went to the United States and Canada, and 17% went elsewhere."
