General Information

Capital:

Dublin 1,050,000 (1995 est.)

Area:

70,280 sq km (27,136 sq mi)

Form of government

Republic, parliamentary democracy

GDP per capita

Purchasing power parity-$20,300 (1999 est.)

Population

3,632,944 (July 1999 est.)

Ethnic composition

Celtic, English

Official Language(s)

Irish, English

Irish is spoken throughout the twenty-six counties of the Republic of Ireland. The 1996 census indicates that 1.43 million people or 43.5% of the population have the ability to speak Irish. These figures are of a self-report nature. Of that number 353,000 people speak Irish every day according to the census. The age groups with the highest indicated level of ability to speak Irish are the 10-14 and 15-19 age groups, each with 68% able to speak Irish. The Irish-speaking heartland areas (the Gaeltacht) are widely dispersed along the Western seaboards and are not densely populated. They contain about 82,715 total inhabitants of the Republic. Of that number 76.3% are Irish speakers according to the census. However, English is still very much the dominant language in the country.

Minority Language(s)

No significant ethnic minorities exist.

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