Pavee Point welcomes newly released figures from Census 2022 that show the count of Irish Travellers increased by 6% to 32,949 since the last Census.
“Today’s
figures on ethnicity reflect the important work that Pavee Point has done, in
conjunction with the CSO, in ethnic data collection in a human rights context
over the past 20 years. The fact that there has been a steady increase
since 2006 in the numbers of Travellers self-identifying indicates trust and confidence
in the census and in particular, in ethnic data collection” Co-Director, Lynsey
Kavanagh.
Figures still fall short of data from the Department of Housing Annual
count of Traveller families and from the All Ireland Traveller Health Study
(AITHS) 2010 indicating further work needs to be done. The figures also show
that Irish Travellers were generally younger than the general population which
confirms the age profile in the AITHS.
Census 2022 was the first
time Roma ethnicity was included in the census form and it is welcome to
see first official data in relation to Roma in Ireland with today’s figures
reporting 16,049 Roma in the country. Similar to Travellers, the Roma
population are generally younger, with more people aged under 14 years and
between 25-44 years than in the general population.
Pavee Point led out on a video campaign, funded by the CSO, to raise awareness of Census 2022 in the Roma community.
“The Roma response to Census 2022 was very positive. This reflects well on the work done by Pavee Point and the National Roma Network in supporting Roma and has resulted in a Roma count that is higher than previous estimates,” said Gabi Muntean of Pavee Point’ Roma Programme.
Pavee Point
has a longstanding partnership with CSO, and since the 1990s, we have advocated
alongside other Traveller organisations, for the introduction of a universal
ethnicity question. This resulted directly in the introduction of the first
ethnicity/cultural background question to the Census in 2006.
