Over 87,000 people emigrated from Ireland in the year to April.

That is an increase from just over 80,000 the previous year according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Irish people accounted for the largest group of emigrants at 46,500 or 53%.

Meanwhile the figures show evidence of slow population growth because of emigration.

The number of people in Ireland increased by 44,900 which is down from 47,500 in 2011.

Meanwhile the number of immigrants into Ireland has fallen slightly from 53,300 to 52,700.

And for the first time since 1990 the male population has dropped slightly by 900.

The population now stands at 4.6 million here.

74,000 births were recorded in the year to April and 29,200 deaths meaning the population grew by 0.2%.

However this is slower growth than in the previous year and that is being attributed to our rising emigration figures.

What growth there was is unevenly distributed across the country with the Mid-East showing the strongest growth and the largest decrease seen in the border counties.

Declan Smyth is a statistician with the CSO.

He says the type of people emigrating are those looking for work.

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