Many people in Ireland and all over the world are anxiously waiting their turn to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. In Ireland we have 15 groups in our HSE priority list for the vaccine. As a 61 year old, I fall into the 12th group ("People aged 55-64"). There are no dates yet for when this group will receive the vaccine. The list is based (fairly in most people's view) on vulnerability and age. This got me thinking about how many people there are in different age groups in Ireland.
The Central Statistics Office provides Census data for 2016 - the most recent available. The population of Ireland in this census was 4,761,845, and data is provided by five year age groups. Using Excel I plotted these data in a bar chart.
Click/Tap Image to Enlarge.
First, I was struck that the age ranges were not evenly balanced. The highest age group are in the 35 to 39 age range, while the lowest is the over 85s. In my own age group (60-64), I am one of 238,856 people. To vaccinate everyone over 65 (priority #5 on the HSE list) means that 570,012 will get the vaccine ahead of the rest of us. According to the 2016 census, there are only 67,555 people over the age of 85 (which includes my Mum and Dad) - this should now be an easy and quick group to vaccinate. If you are in the last group ("People aged under 18 and pregnant women", #15 on HSE list), then there are approximately 3.5 million people ahead of you in the vaccine queue.
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