As the cost of living in Ireland has reached extraordinary heights, many of the young people of Ireland have set their sights abroad.
In 2024, 79,000 Irish citizens emigrated abroad, the highest levels of Irish emigration since the financial crash of 2007. But why is this the case?
As of 2025, 84% of Irish citizens find themselves worried about the worsening cost-of-living crisis. This comes off the backs of increased food costs, spiking fuel prices and tremendous rent hikes. With the CSO reporting a 4.2% increase in food prices within the past year. With rent prices also further increasing by 7.3% on average nationally. Whilst Daft.ie have reported a 9% average rent increase across Galway from 2024 to 2025.
As a result of these mounting financial pressures, the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) has reported that 3 in 5 people aged under 25 are considering emigration, whilst 1 in 3 young people are strongly considering leaving Ireland behind in the hopes of finding better quality of life abroad.
In 2024, Ireland was ranked the country with the highest level of third-level graduates in the EU. With the level of young people attending third-level education increasing by 14.8% between the period of 2017 to 2023. Showcasing the increasing number of educated Irish young people capable of helping the economy to grow. However, as our cost of living rises, Irish young people are being forced to choose between living with the financial pressure of Ireland, or leaving their loved ones behind for the promise of improved standards of living elsewhere.
With that comes the knock-on effect of a ‘brain-drain’ for the economy of Ireland. As many of the country’s newly graduated workforce move abroad, Ireland finds its skilled labourforce becoming rapidly more and more depleted and the young future of Ireland looking more and more bleak. However, until more is done to combat and alleviate these financial burdens placed on students, the Irish economy will continue to suffer.
Young people now look to the Irish government for more support in these trying times in a hopeful bid to protect this crumbling Irish workforce and have made several calls for action for policies to be implemented to save the economic future of Ireland.
