The report, authored by Professor Alessio D’Angelo of University of Derby and Dr Neil Kaye from UCL, provides a detailed analysis of the Irish community in Scotland using data from the latest census. It looks at the community through three key metrics: country of birth, ethnicity, and passports held, and features statistics on health, housing, education, employment as well as year of migration and age/gender profile.
The launch took place at the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh city centre, organised by Irish in Britain in conjunction with the Consulate General of Ireland, Scotland who funded the report. The audience of Irish community organisations and academics heard from Irish in Britain CEO Brian Dalton, Consul General Jerry O’Donovan, Professor D’Angelo and Chair of Modern History at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Enda Delaney.
The report – available online here – indicates a growing and thriving Irish community in Scotland. The Irish in Scotland constitutes a much younger and more recently arrived population than that in England and Wales. Of the first-generation migrants currently living in Scotland, more people arrived in the 2017-2022 period than at any point since 1971.
The Irish in Scotland tend to feature similarly or – even better – than the overall Scottish population regarding general indicators of self-reported health, wellbeing and social housing. The proportion of people with degree-level education is nearly twice the Scottish average.
There is a contrasting trend however for the few thousands of people who self-identify as Gypsy/Traveller, with proportions of people reporting bad health and no formal education approximately three times higher than the general population of Scotland.
These findings prompt important considerations for Irish organisations in Scotland and it is hoped that they can be used to support project planning, funding applications and future research.