The Central Statistics Office (CSO; ) is the

statistical Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...

agency responsible for the gathering of "information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions" in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

(it does not operate in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

), in particular the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

which is held every five years. The office is answerable to the

Taoiseach The Taoiseach (, ) is the head of government or prime minister of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The office is appointed by the President of Ireland upon nomination by Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Oireachtas, Ireland's national legisl ...

and has its main offices in Cork. The Director General of the CSO is Jennifer Banim.

History

The CSO was established on a statutory basis in 1994 to reduce the number of separate offices responsible for collecting statistics for the state. The CSO had existed, as an independent office within the

Department of the Taoiseach The Department of the Taoiseach () is the government department of the Taoiseach, the title in Ireland for the head of government.Article 13.1.1° and Article 28.5.1° of the Constitution of Ireland. The latter provision reads: "The head of the ...

, from June 1949, and its work greatly increased in the following decades, particularly from 1973 with the

joining the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

(EEC). Previous to the 1949 reforms, statistics were collected by the Statistics Branch of the Department of Industry and Commerce on the creation of the

Irish Free State The Irish Free State (6 December 192229 December 1937), also known by its Irish-language, Irish name ( , ), was a State (polity), state established in December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 1921. The treaty ended the three-ye ...

in 1922. The Statistics Branch amalgamated a number of statistics gathering organisations that had existed in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

since 1841, when the first comprehensive census was undertaken by the Irish Constabulary (later renamed as the

Royal Irish Constabulary The Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC, ; simply called the Irish Constabulary 1836–67) was the police force in Ireland from 1822 until 1922, when all of the island was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom. A sep ...

). On 15 September 2020, on the advice of the Central Statistics Office, the Irish Government postponed the

quinquennial An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the date of independence of the nation or the adoption o ...

population

, originally scheduled for 18 April 2021, until 3 April 2022 because of health and logistical obstacles caused by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Head of the Office

The current Director-General of the Central Statistics Office is Jennifer Banim.

Household Finance and Consumption Survey

In 2013, the first ever Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) was conducted in the Republic of Ireland by the CSO on behalf of the

Central Bank of Ireland The Central Bank of Ireland () is the national central bank for Ireland within the Eurosystem. It was the Irish central bank from 1943 to 1998, issuing the Irish pound. It is also the country's main financial regulatory authority, and since 2 ...

as part of the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the central component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#International ...

(ECB) HFCS scheme/network.

References

External links

*
Population of each Province, County and City, 2002

National Statistics Board, Ireland
Government agencies of the Republic of Ireland

Department of the Taoiseach {{gov-stub

History

Head of the Office

Household Finance and Consumption Survey

See also

References

External links