Debunked: No, nine out of ten Ukrainians in Ireland are not unemployed

A VIDEO COMPLAINING about Ukrainians in Ireland makes a number of false claims, including the false statistic that nine out of every ten Ukrainians in Ireland don’t have jobs.

In the video, a woman talks to camera about Ukrainians living in Ireland. At one stage she mocks non-government political parties and their attitude to Ukrainians, saying “You have the opposition: ‘Oh, God love them. They’re fleeing war and they come here from a better life.’ Absolute bullshit. They came here to bleed the system. Over 90% of them are not working.”

The video has been viewed more than 127,000 times since being posted to Facebook and more than 147,000 times since it was posted to Instagram on 30 April.

The Central Statistics Office has released regular stats on Ukrainians in Ireland, with the latest release being published in February 2026.

This release shows that, in Ireland, there were 84,100 individual Ukrainians “with recent activity in administrative data”, which refers to things like active employment, picking up a social welfare payment, or having a child enrolled in a childcare or education scheme.

This statistic is used to estimate the number of Ukrainians who were still in the country.

Of that number, 29,060 arrivals had officially recorded earnings from employment, which is about 34.5% of the total. In short, the claim that 90% of Ukrainians in Ireland are unemployed is false.

However, the same release also shows that 19,515 of those Ukrainians in Ireland are under 18 years of age.

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If we assume that all the Ukrainian earners were over 18, then that means that 29,060 of the 64,585 adult Ukrainians had worked, or about 45% of all adults.

It is possible that some Ukrainian children had recorded earnings. However, the effect on the final tally would likely be very small.

This Ukrainian unemployment rate is higher than Ireland’s on the whole. About 52% of Ireland’s population is in work. However, the Ukrainian figure is closer to the national average than to the claim that they have a 90% unemployment rate.

More than half the Ukrainians who attended a state-run employment support event noted that English language skills were a challenge to gaining employment. 

In late April, the government announced plans to withdraw accommodation for Ukrainian refugees in Ireland. 

Ukrainians in Ireland are regular targets of misinformation, often to exaggerate the cost they incur to the state or taxpayer.

These often include false comparisons about what Ukrainian families or workers receive compared to Irish citizens, or false claims about what supports Ukrainians are entitled to, or claims that there are laws that Ukrainians do not need to heed.

There have also been exaggerations about how much money Ireland has pledged to Ukraine, as well as the number of Ukrainians in the country.

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