A new report shows that counties across the western region, including Leitrim and Roscommon, are seeing greatly increased inward migration.
The report from the Western Development Commission shows that the has been a significant increase in people moving West since the previous census, outweighing the natural increases in some cases.
Dr Luke McGrath is an economist and author of the WDC report.
He says that this positive inward migration will help inform future regional policy.
"This is a key reversal of the old trend. If you go back to the previous census we would have seen negative net migration across the Western region and now, importantly, the net inward migration is not only positive but it's outweighing the natural increases across the region. These higher dependency ratios are related to certain structural issues like outward migration of the region's working age population so this is why graduate retention and regional employment diversification are key elements to future regional policy".
