Foreign nationals make up more than 10 per cent of the Irish population, according to detailed figures on nationality released today.
The results from the 2006 Census show an 87 per cent increase in the number of foreign nationals resident in Ireland since the previous census was taken in April 2002.
This represents an almost doubling in the number of foreign nationals in the Republic from 224,000 in 2002 to 420,000 on the night of the 23rd of April, 2006. The majority of migrants come from European Union countries.
The United Kingdom had 113,000 nationals living in Ireland, Polish nationals numbered 63,300 and Lithuanian nationals numbered 24,600 on the night of the census. The rest of Europe accounted for 24,000 individuals.
Nigeria had 16,300 nationals in Ireland and China had 11,161 nationals living in Ireland.
The Census also recorded an increase in divorce figures, with 59,534 people listed as divorced, an increase of 24,475 from 2002's 35,059.
The numbers of Irish speakers has grown from 1,570,894 in 2002 to 1,656,790. Despite the numerical increase (85,896) the percentage of those with the ability to speak Irish has fallen from 42.8 per cent to 41.9 per cent.
Census figures found that 53,471 people speak Irish on a daily basis outside of the education system while 97,089 speak the first language on a weekly basis, and 581,574 speak the language less often.
Of those who have an ability to speak Irish, 412,846 never speak it.