In April, 2025 we organized a large survey to collect statistical data among Ukrainians living in Galway City and County of Galway. The results of this research show the picture of the Ukrainian community in Galway, their needs, and how they can be useful to the local community and Ireland as a whole.
Since March 2022, Ireland has accepted 115 thousand Ukrainians, of whom about 70 thousand people will remain in the country in 2025. According to the latest data, about 5 thousand Ukrainians live in Galway City and County.
The survey by UHUG was conducted from April 13 to 30 and covered 251 respondents: 75.7% women and 24.3% men. It showed that the majority of Ukrainians in Galway, 67.2%, came to Ireland from the occupied and frontline territories of the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine.
Most of them lost their homes while their cities and towns were occupied or destroyed. This probably affects the number of those Ukrainians who want to stay in Ireland and plan to build their lives here — 69.3%. This number can be considered general throughout Ireland, as Ukrainian community leaders from different counties confirm similar trends. The same situation is observed in other countries that have accepted Ukrainian refugees.
According to a recent study by the Centre for Economic Strategy (CES), a Ukrainian research group, for many Ukrainian refugees, matters not only when the war ends, but also how. The growing prospect of a ceasefire without Ukrainian membership in NATO or the EU, along with continued Russian occupation of a fifth of the country, does not inspire much confidence. Many Ukrainians fear Russia would attack again soon.
Due to the survey, 44.2% of Ukrainians have minor children who live with them. The vast majority of families (25.1%) have one child, 13.2% have two children, and 5.9% have three children or more. After three years in Ireland, these children are highly integrated here: they go to school, do after-school activities, have friends, etc. Due to the situation in Ukraine with everyday bombings and missile and drone attacks all over the country, most of those families are unlikely to return to Ukraine.
As for living conditions, 59.8% of respondents live in Galway County and 40.2% — in Galway City. The majority of respondents (52.2%) live on the ARP program, paying just utilities or utilities and some extra costs to compensate for the market rental price of the property. A significant percentage pays for rent on their own — 18.7%. Only 25.1% remain in social housing due to the lack of rental options or ARP and the high cost of renting housing. And only 1.6% of respondents live in modular houses built as social housing by the government.
Despite the general housing crisis in Ireland, the situation with the settlement of Ukrainians throughout Ireland has brought more than 20 thousand households to the real estate market that had not previously been rented out. According to the results of a survey by the Irish Red Cross, 91% of those who provided housing to Ukrainians under the ARP program had never previously been registered as landlords. That is, Ukrainians do not create a significant burden on the housing rental sector but have expanded it in perspective.