More than 15,000 people in the Irish labour force over the age of 15 have had no formal education, according to the 2016 census.

12,827 of these are Irish Nationals, which equates to 84% of the total figure.

Of those who have had ‘no formal education’ (meaning that they never completed Primary School) the top five industries they find work in are:

Overall, 210 workers classed as ‘Corporate Managers and Directors’ fall into this category of ‘no formal education’, and 215 are considered to be ‘Other Managers and Proprietors’. A total of 55 are employed in the Science, Research, Engineering and Technology sector, and seven are working in the teaching and education professions.

Unfortunately 5,885 of the workers in this category of having ‘no formal education’ have fallen into the ‘other/unstated’ category for their occupational industry, and so their professions can’t be included in this data.

This figure of 15,155 in the 2016 census has gone up by 1,671 people since the 2011 census, and so going by this trend, lack of a primary education may actually be an issue on the rise, contrary to popular belief.

For 97,409 of the workers in the country over 15, completing primary school has been the highest form of education they’ve received, and for 260,960 the highest education they’ve completed is ‘Lower Secondary’ (Junior Certificate).

The figures were not broken down by age, and so it can’t be determined if this figure is predominantly made up of older residents or not. There was also no indication of gender to break it down into male and female figures.

By Mary Kate Findon