CSO - Central Statistics Office Ireland

06/24/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/24/2026 04:03

Press Statement - Highlights from the Children and Young Persons Hub June 2026

Press Statement

Highlights from the Children and Young Persons Hub June 2026

CSO press statement, 24 June 2026, 11:00 AM

CSO Children and Young Persons Hub Provides a Snapshot of the Lives of Young People in Ireland

  • In 2025, 9% of those aged 20-24 years reported being daily smokers. This was the lowest percentage reported for this age group in the period examined from 2015 to 2025.

  • In 2024, 70.8% of young people aged 18-24 years reported spending over two hours a day on social media.

  • Self-perceived general mental health was fair, good or very good for 82.5% of young people aged 18-24 years in 2024.

  • In 2024, 78.7% of young people aged 18-24 years said they could fairly easily to very easily get practical help from neighbours, while 21.3% said they could do so with difficulty or with great difficulty.

  • Almost a third (30%) of young people aged 18-24 years experienced discrimination in 2024. Of those who experienced discrimination, 79% took no action.

  • Less than 1% of households with a child or children under 16 years were unable to afford age-appropriate books in 2024.

  • In 2024, 5.9% of households with a child or children under 16 years were unable to afford regular leisure activities such as swimming, playing an instrument, etc.

Children and Young Persons Hub

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (24 June 2026) published an update to the information available on our Children and Young Persons Hub. The Hub serves as a single source of key information on the lives of children and young people in Ireland using the latest data from the CSO and other public service bodies.

Statistician's Comment

Commenting on the Children and Young Persons Hub, Dianne Hillery, Statistician in the Social Statistics Directorate of the CSO, said: "The CSO's Children and Young Persons Hub includes indicators related to young people in Ireland across a wide range of topics.

Recent updates to the Hub have included a number of child poverty and well-being indicators. These indicators were collated by the Child Poverty and Wellbeing Programme Office in the Department of An Taoiseach. They have been brought together from multiple data sources, further illustrating how the Hub can collate a variety of statistics on the lives of children and young people in one easy to find location. These indicators support the Child Poverty Target set by the Government in 2025 and will continue to be developed and presented on the Hub as data becomes available.

Data across the Hub allow us to see whether there are changes in the behaviour of young people in Ireland over time. In 2025, 9% of young people aged 20-24 years reported being daily smokers. This was the lowest percentage reported in the period examined from 2015 to 2025 for this age group, with the highest being 25.4% in 2018.

New and updated data will continue to be added to the Hub. The CSO welcome comments and suggestions from users on the Hub which can be sent to [email protected]."

Highlights from the Children and Young Persons Hub

Population

  • The latest data shows the estimated number of people under the age of 18 in Ireland was approximately 1.23 million and the number of those aged 18-24 years was just over 467,000 as of 2025.
  • The number of children born to mothers aged under 20 years halved from 1,380 births in 2013 to 683 births in 2023.

Education

  • The average class size in mainstream primary schools has reduced from 25 students in the 2015-16 academic year to 22 in the 2024-25 academic year.
  • More than 60,000 students were enrolled in Transition Year in the 2024-25 academic year; this was up from less than 59,000 students in the 2023-24 academic year.

General Health

  • In 2024, 76.9% of young people aged 18-24 years perceived their health status to be good or very good in 2024.
  • Similarly, 77.4% of young people aged 18-24 years reported no long-standing illness or health problem in 2024.
  • In 2024 the most common form of physical activity (three days or more a week) for young people aged 18-24 years was walking to get to and from places (85.2%). This was followed by sports, fitness or recreational activities (53.4%) and muscle strengthening activities (33.5%).

Mental Health

  • The percentage of those aged 15-19 years who reported experiencing emotional distress symptoms in 2024 was 4.4% while for those aged 20-24 years it was 16.3%.
  • Of those aged 18-24 years who used social media in 2024, 36.8% reported that it had a negative impact on mental health.

Relationships

  • Young people aged 18-24 years reported on their support systems in 2024 with 21.1% saying there were six or more people they could count on if they had serious problems. This was 43.6% for those who said there were three to five people they could count on and it was 31.5% for those with one or two people.
  • In 2024, 3.8% reported having nobody they could count on if they had serious problems, and, likewise, 3.8% felt that other people showed no concern and interest in what the young person was doing.
  • More than two-thirds (67.9%) of young people aged 18-24 years reported there was some or a lot of concern and interest shown by others in what they were doing in 2024.

Society

  • In 2023, 8.4% of men and 6.9% of women aged 25 years in the Growing Up in Ireland study reported they had been a victim of crime in the last two years.
  • In 2022, 6,051 boys and 2,353 girls were referred to the Garda Diversion Programme.

Deprivation and Poverty

  • The percentage of households with at least one child under 16 years unable to afford a suitable place to study/do homework reduced from 1.1% in 2021 to 0.3% in 2024.
  • Similarly, the percentage of households with at least one child under 16 years unable to afford school trips/events that cost money reduced from 3.1% in 2021 to 1.8% in 2024.

Editor's Note

The Children and Young Persons Hub was launched by the CSO in February 2025. The Hub provides users with easy access to the most up-to-date statistics on a range of key themes related to children and young people as they are published on our open data portal. The Hub uses our open data portal, PxStat, which allows users to search for data relevant to them, download it, and create visuals in a way that suits them best. The structure of the Hub allows flexibility to add new data as it becomes available, to include new topics, and to have more regular updates.

Contacts

Email [email protected]
Email [email protected]

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CSO - Central Statistics Office Ireland published this content on June 24, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 24, 2026 at 10:04 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]