Increase in UK citizens holding Irish passports since Brexit

There has been a five-fold increase in UK citizens holding Irish passports since 2011, with Brexit serving as a driving factor.

Data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), showed that 84.4% of UK residents held just one passport, but there has been a sharp jump in those holding an Irish passport.

The number of UK and Irish passports held by people born in the UK increased sharply over the 10-year period for UK-born residents of England and Wales, and a three-fold rise for UK residents who were not born in that country.

The figure of UK-born residents with Irish passports stood at 25,967 in 2011, and a staggering 158,330 in 2021.

Figures for non-UK-born residents with Irish passports stood at just under 10,000 in 2011 and at over 20,000 in 2021.

Jay Lindop, from the ONS, said “The number of people with dual citizenship has doubled since 2011, with more than 1.2 million usual residents in England and Wales now holding multiple passports.”

“The rise in dual citizens may also suggest greater uptake of additional passports following the end of free movement when the UK left the European Union,” he noted.

The findings noted that rise in UK/Irish dual citizens across the decade was most apparent in those aged 50 to 70 years old, implying that many only took up their dual nationality more recently despite moving to England and Wales years ago and were influenced by the outcome of the Brexit referendum in 2016.

The rise in UK-born British and European dual citizens was driven by younger age groups, but British/Irish passport holders being older, the ONS noted.

Famed English novelist John le Carré notably attained Irish citizenship towards the end of his life, telling American broadcaster CBS “the jingoistic England that is trying to march us out of the EU, that is an England I don’t want to know.”