Ireland had the highest price levels for consumer goods and services across the 27 countries of the European Union in 2021, a report from the Central Statistics Office has found.
Prices were 43.8% above the average of the 27 countries, known as the EU27, it concluded.
The latest Measuring Ireland’s Progress report covers the year 2021 when the current inflationary environment was only beginning to kick in.
EU inflation averaged at 2.9% in 2021 but had started to gather momentum, hitting 5% by the end of the year.
The report also revealed that Ireland had the third highest percentage increase in population in the EU between 2010 and 2022.
At 10.3% growth, it was just behind Malta at almost 25% population growth and Luxembourg at 23%.
Ireland’s population was estimated at 5.1 million in 2022.
The proportion of Ireland’s population aged 45 or over increased from 34.9% to 40.2% between 2012 and 2022, while the proportion aged under 45 decreased from 65% to 59.8%.
Ireland had a fertility rate of 1.8 in 2021, which tied with France, Czechia and Romania as the highest rate in the EU27.
All countries in the EU27 were below the theoretical replacement fertility rate of 2.1.
Male life expectancy at birth was 80.8 years in Ireland in 2020, the highest in the EU27.
Female life expectancy at birth in Ireland was 84.4 years, which was 1.2 years above the EU27 average.
Article Source: Ireland had highest consumer prices in EU in 2021- RTE