The Gaeltacht is the set of districts officially recognised as Irish-speaking. 106,220 people lived in them in 2022; 20,261 spoke Irish every day outside school.
| Gaeltacht | Population 2022 | Daily speakers 2011 | 2016 | 2022 | % of Irish speakers, 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Galway County | 36,687 | 10,085 | 9,445 | 9,373 | 38.7% |
| Donegal | 24,220 | 7,047 | 5,929 | 5,753 | 37% |
| Kerry | 9,036 | 2,501 | 2,049 | 2,131 | 35.1% |
| Cork | 4,110 | 982 | 872 | 847 | 28.8% |
| Mayo | 10,515 | 1,172 | 895 | 727 | 12.2% |
| Galway City | 17,496 | 636 | 646 | 646 | 8.3% |
| Waterford | 2,063 | 438 | 467 | 508 | 34.5% |
| Meath | 2,093 | 314 | 283 | 276 | 23.4% |
| All Gaeltacht areas | 106,220 | 23,175 | 20,586 | 20,261 | 31.1% |
"Daily speakers" are people aged 3 and over who said they speak Irish daily outside the education system. The last column is their share of the area's Irish speakers, as the CSO gives it.
252 primary schools in the Republic teach entirely through Irish — 100 in the Gaeltacht and 152 outside it, the gaelscoileanna — with 42,323 pupils between them.
CSO table ED111 ↗ (Department of Education data).
At secondary level, 50 schools teach all subjects through Irish (the gaelcholáistí), and 24 more run an Irish-medium unit. All-Irish secondary schools by county: Galway 11, Dublin 10, Cork 6, Donegal 5, Kerry 3, Kildare 2, Limerick 2, Mayo 2, Waterford 2, Wicklow 2, Carlow 1, Kilkenny 1, Meath 1, Monaghan 1, Wexford 1.
Secondary figures: Department of Education (Statistics Unit) schools layer, 2026.
106,220 at the 2022 census, up from 100,716 in 2011.
20,261 people aged 3 and over said they spoke Irish daily outside the education system in 2022 — 31.1% of the Gaeltacht's Irish speakers, and 2,914 fewer than in 2011.
Galway County, with 9,373 in 2022.
Seven: Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Meath, Waterford — Galway's is counted in two parts, the city and the county.