John Campbell

BBC News NI economics and business editor

The US comedian and actress Rosie O’Donnell decided to relocate to Ireland in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory in November 2024.

Official data suggests others could have made the same decision, with immigration from the US to Ireland almost doubling over the last year.

In the 12 months to April of this year, 9,600 people moved to the Republic of Ireland from the US, up from 4,900 in 2024.

Gross immigration overall was down 16%, while gross immigration from the US was up 96%, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.

We cannot know the motivations of all those people and the last year also saw an increase in people moving the other way across the Atlantic.

Migration from Ireland to the US was up 22% from 5,000 people to 6,100.

Overall net immigration to the Republic of Ireland fell sharply over the last year, the data suggests.

Just over 125,000 people came to live in the country in the year to April while 65,600 left, meaning there was net immigration of 59,700 people.

That compares to net immigration of 79,300 in 2024 and 77,600 in 2023.

Immigration has become a major social and political issue in Ireland after the country accepted a large number of Ukrainian refugees alongside an increase in other sources of immigration.

Between March and December 2022 almost 68,000 people arrived in the Republic of Ireland from Ukraine under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive.

That sudden and unprecedented influx placed significant pressure on Irish state resources with the government having to take measures such as temporarily housing people in tents.

Ireland’s government was already struggling with a housing crisis before the increase in immigration.

The country’s centre-right coalition has begun to take a harder line on immigration with measures such as an increase in deportations.

Last month, Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said his department was preparing a new immigration strategy which would ensure that “our rules are fully enforced and that those with no right to be here are returned”.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) suggests there were 125,300 immigrants to Ireland in the 12-months to April 2025, a 16% decrease from the same period of 2024.

It was the fourth successive year where over 100,000 people immigrated to Ireland.

Of those immigrants, 31,500 were returning Irish citizens, 25,300 were other EU citizens and 4,900 were UK citizens.

The remaining 63,600 immigrants were citizens of other countries.

There was a fall in emigration numbers for the first time since 2020 with 65,600 people leaving in the 12 months to April 2025. This was a decrease of 4,300 people, or 6% compared with 69,900 in the same period of 2024.

This consisted of 35,000 Irish citizens, 10,500 other EU citizens, 2,700 UK citizens, and 17,400 other citizens.