The CSO has today published an update to its older persons information hub, which provides a snapshot into the lives of older people in Ireland.<\/p>\n
There were 131,400 people aged 65 years and over in employment in Quarter 2 in 2025 \u2013 from April to June \u2013 compared to 103,900 in Quarter 2 in 2021, which marks a 26pc increase.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the population of people aged 85 years and over is projected to more than triple by 2057, increasing from an estimated 104,300 in 2027 to 389,400 in 2057.<\/p>\n
The report also shows how more than one in ten (11pc) of those aged 75 years and over reported experiencing discrimination in the past two years, compared to almost three in ten (29pc) people aged between 25 and 34 years.<\/p>\n
At the same time, three in five people (59.9pc) aged 75 years and over walked to get to and from places at least three days a week last year, while 85.2pc of those aged between 18 and 24 years did so.<\/p>\n
The statistics suggest that the old age dependency ratio \u2013 expressing the population aged 65 years and over as a percentage of the population aged between 15 and 64 \u2013 is set to increase from 25pc in 2027 to 49.8pc in 2057.<\/p>\n
However, almost one in three (32.3pc) of people aged 65 years and over considered their overall life satisfaction to be high, compared to a quarter (24.7pc) of those aged between 25 and 49 years old.<\/p>\n
The CSO statistician in the well-being and social cohesion division, Sarah Crilly, said: \u201cThe population of Ireland is ageing, and older people are continuing to be an active and vibrant part of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The older persons information hub includes both social and economic indicators, which cover life satisfaction, population, health, education, employment, income and poverty, crime, life events, and more,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The CSO\u2019s statistics also indicate that more people aged over 65 years old still have a mortgage, with the number rising from 22,674 in 2016 to 27,179 in 2022, marking a 20pc increase.<\/p>\n
It comes as one in five (20pc) workers aged between 55 and 69 don\u2019t have a private pension, while there has been a significant increase in the number of those aged 65 and over who are at risk of poverty, rising from 8.3pc in 2023 to 13.3pc last year.<\/p>\n
Sales director at Royal London Ireland, Daragh Feely, said the age when first-time buyers \u201cget on the property ladder continues to creep ever higher\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the trend of buying homes later in life continues, this is likely to put more pressure on some mortgage holders, as they have less time to pay off their home loans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
“As a result, there is an increased risk that people may have to continue paying off their debts into their retirement years.<\/p>\n
“In a perfect world, people would be able to clear their mortgage before they retire. However, this isn\u2019t always possible, and some people really struggle to make ends meet after they come to the end of their working life and they are no longer earning.<\/p>\n
“Almost one in ten (8.8pc) of retired people are at risk of poverty, and this figure could increase if more people in Ireland find themselves repaying their mortgage into retirement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Senior mortgage advisor at NFP Ireland, Fiona McMahon, added: \u201cIf you can comfortably meet your mortgage repayments, it is advisable to continue doing so rather than accessing your pension early.\u201d<\/p>\n
“While being mortgage-free may sound appealing, the short-term benefit could be outweighed by the long-term value of a larger pension fund when you retire.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The CSO has today published an update to its older persons information hub, which provides a snapshot into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[7699,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-27309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-adrianna-wrona","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-top-stories","20":"tag-topstories","21":"tag-world","22":"tag-world-news","23":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}