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Central Statistics Office: Ireland's official statistics

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is Ireland's national statistics office. It publishes the census, the Consumer Price Index, the Labour Force Survey, national accounts, population and migration estimates, earnings, house prices and vital statistics. Each release has a web page with key findings and links to PxStat tables that can be downloaded or queried through a free API. Fact-checkers use it for most claims about Ireland's economy and population.

Release calendar

What it publishes

• Census of Population results; the next census is due in April/May 2027.
• Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), monthly.
• Labour Force Survey (quarterly, the official unemployment measure) and Monthly Unemployment flash estimates.
• Quarterly and annual national accounts, including GDP, GNP, modified domestic demand and GNI*.
• Population and Migration Estimates each April, and quarterly and annual vital statistics on births, deaths and marriages.
• Earnings and Labour Costs (quarterly) and annual earnings analysis from administrative data.
• Residential Property Price Index from Revenue stamp-duty filings, monthly.
• Government Finance Statistics on the deficit and debt, and the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) on poverty and income.

Key datasets

• Consumer Price Index September 2026
  Annual and monthly CPI change by division, with the HICP.
  Updated: Monthly
• Population and Migration Estimates, April 2026
  Usually resident population, age, citizenship, immigration and emigration.
  Updated: Annual (August)
• Monthly Unemployment September 2026
  Seasonally adjusted unemployment rate and count by sex and age.
  Updated: Monthly
• Quarterly National Accounts Q2 2026
  GDP, modified domestic demand and sector growth.
  Updated: Quarterly
• Residential Property Price Index August 2026
  House price index, median prices by area and transaction counts.
  Updated: Monthly
• Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025
  Household income, at-risk-of-poverty and consistent poverty rates.
  Updated: Annual

APIs and downloads

• PxStat (data.cso.ie)
  Every CSO table, searchable and downloadable as CSV, XLSX or JSON-stat.
• PxStat API example: CPM01
  RESTful endpoint returning a whole table as JSON-stat; change the table code for other series. No key needed when checked.
• data.gov.ie
  Ireland's open data portal, which lists CSO tables alongside other public bodies' data.

When it publishes

CSO releases are published at 11am on dates set in advance in the release calendar. CPI appears in the second week of the following month, with a flash HICP at the end of the reference month; Monthly Unemployment at the end of the month; Quarterly National Accounts about two months after the quarter, after a preliminary GDP estimate about four weeks after it.

How to use it to check a claim

1. Check whether a price figure is CPI or HICP; they use different weights and the ECB target refers to the HICP.
2. For the economy, ask whether the claim uses GDP, GNP, modified domestic demand or GNI*; multinational activity can move GDP by double digits in a quarter.
3. Treat Monthly Unemployment as a flash estimate; the Labour Force Survey is the official measure, and monthly numbers are revised.
4. Note the period: SILC 2025 incomes relate to 2024, and population estimates refer to April of each year.
5. Cite the PxStat table code and the date you downloaded it, since recent figures are revised.

Common mistakes

• Average weekly earnings are a mean over all employees, including part-time, so they are lower than typical full-time pay and higher than the median.
• Birth and death counts in the yearly summaries are by registration date, not occurrence date.
• The RPPI is mix-adjusted, so its growth rate can differ from changes in the median price.
• Recorded crime figures depend on Garda recording and some categories carry CSO quality notes; read the release's notes before comparing years.

Where do I find the latest CSO release on a topic?

Each topic page under Statistics on cso.ie lists releases newest first, and the release calendar lists future dates. Every release page has key findings, a data section with PxStat table codes and background notes on method.

Is there a CSO API?

Yes. PxStat tables can be read through a RESTful URL that returns JSON-stat, for example the CPM01 consumer price table. Change the table code to get other datasets. The tables can also be downloaded from data.cso.ie as CSV or XLSX.

What is GNI* and why does the CSO publish it?

Modified gross national income (GNI*) removes items such as the depreciation of foreign-owned intellectual property and aircraft leasing, and the profits of redomiciled companies. The CSO publishes it because GDP overstates the size of the domestic economy in Ireland.

Questions answered using this source

• What is the inflation rate in Ireland?
• What is the population of Ireland?
• What is the unemployment rate in Ireland?
• What is Ireland's GDP?
• What is the average salary in Ireland?
• What is the average house price in Ireland?
• What is the poverty rate in Ireland?
• What is the birth rate in Ireland?
• When is the next census in Ireland?

Links checked 14 October 2026. This page describes what the source publishes and gives no verdict on any claim.