Physical features
The island of Ireland is situated in the extreme north-west of Europe.
Area: 70,282 km2 [Northern Ireland: 14,139 km2].
Climate
Influenced by the Gulf Stream and with the prevailing winds predominantly from the south-west, the climate is equable and temperatures are fairly uniform over the whole country. The coldest months are January and February with average daily air temperatures of between 4°C and 7°C, while July and August are the warmest (14°C to 16°C). Extremes of air temperature, below -10°C or above 30°C, are extremely rare.
In low-lying areas average annual rainfall is mostly between 800 and 1200mm but ranges from less than 750mm in some eastern areas to 1500mm in parts of the west. In mountainous areas annual rainfall may exceed 2000mm.
4.4 million
For more information please contact Central Statistics Office Ireland
Language
English is recognised as the second official language but is the language of the workplace outside of Gaeltacht areas where Irish continues to be spoken.
Religion
The Irish Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and the free
profession and practice of religion to all citizens.
Politics
In December 1921 an Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed and 26 counties gained independence as the Irish Free State. Six Ulster counties had been granted their own parliament in Belfast in 1920 and remained within the United Kingdom.
A new constitution was introduced in 1937 and Ireland remained neutral during the Second World War. In 1949 the Irish Republic was established. Ireland was admitted to the UN in 1955 and acceded to the European Economic Community in 1973, together with the United Kingdom and Denmark.
Economy
As an international trading economy, with a small domestic market, Ireland is heavily dependent on foreign trade. Regularly cited as one of the most open markets in the world, and rating highly in globalisation indexes. Over the 1996-2007 period, Irish GNP increased at a rapid rate averaging 7% growth per year making it the fastest growing economy in the EU. However, there was a dramatic turnaround in 2008 and the Irish economy officially entered into a recession in the first half of the year. While the Irish economy contracted by 1.6% year-on-year in Q3 2010 there were also signs of a nascent recovery, with seasonally-adjusted GNP up 1.1% quarter-on-quarter. The quarter-on-quarter increase has been driven by the export sector, which has continued to perform strongly. Meanwhile, consumption and investment levels fell further reflecting continued weakness in the demand for housing and domestic services. The upward revisions of estimates for both the funding requirement for the banking bail-out and the scale of the front-loading of budgetary cutbacks seem to be having an adverse effect consumer confidence. The short-term outlook is that the Irish economy will have no net positive growth over the 2010-2011 period, due to a combination of modest negative growth in 2010 and modest positive growth in 2011. The most recent Reuter poll of economist points to a consensus forecast of 1% growth in GNP this year, while the ESRI are forecasting the economy to grow by a modest 1.5% in 2012. So while an economic recovery is taking place, it is doing so at a very slow rate.
