01Key Takeaways
- Ireland imported $150.61 billion worth of goods in 2023, up 1.42% from $148.50 billion in 2022, a modest gain after several years of much sharper growth.
- Organic chemicals led every import category at 14.41% ($21.70 billion), largely pharmaceutical ingredients feeding Ireland's drug manufacturing plants.
- Aircraft and spacecraft parts ranked second at 13.84% ($20.84 billion), reflecting Ireland's status as the world's leading aircraft-leasing hub.
- The UK supplied 18.84% of imports, worth $28.38 billion, by far Ireland's largest source.
025-Year Trend
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Value | $101.9B | $99.4B | $122.7B | $148.5B | $150.6B |
03Top Import Markets (2023)
| Rank | Partner | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | United Kingdom | $28.4B | 18.8% |
| 2 | United States | $24.8B | 16.5% |
| 3 | France | $18.5B | 12.3% |
| 4 | China | $11.6B | 7.7% |
| 5 | Germany | $9.7B | 6.5% |
| 6 | Switzerland | $8.7B | 5.8% |
| 7 | Netherlands | $6.1B | 4.0% |
| 8 | Israel | $3.9B | 2.6% |
| 9 | Spain | $3.4B | 2.3% |
| 10 | Italy | $2.9B | 1.9% |
04Top Import Categories (2023)
| Rank | Category | Value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Organic Chemicals | $21.7B | 14.4% |
| 2 | Aircraft, Spacecraft and parts thereof | $20.8B | 13.8% |
| 3 | Nuclear Reactors, Boilers, Machinery and Mechanical Appliances; Parts thereof | $16.0B | 10.6% |
| 4 | Pharmaceutical Products | $13.4B | 8.9% |
| 5 | Electrical Machinery and Equipment and parts thereof; Sound Recorders and Reproducers, Television Image and Sound Recorders and Reproducers, and Parts and Accessories of such Articles | $12.9B | 8.6% |
| 6 | Mineral Fuels, Mineral Oils and Products of their Distillation; Bituminous Substances; Mineral Waxes | $10.9B | 7.2% |
| 7 | Vehicles other than Railway or Tramway Rolling-Stock, and parts and accessories thereof | $6.9B | 4.6% |
| 8 | Optical, Photographic, Cinematographic, Measuring, Checking, Precision, Medical or Surgical Instruments and Apparatus; Parts and Accessories thereof | $5.5B | 3.6% |
| 9 | Plastics and Articles thereof | $4.1B | 2.8% |
| 10 | Articles of Iron or Steel | $1.7B | 1.1% |
05Trade Partner Map
06Analysis
Aircraft Leasing and Pharma Chemicals Dominate What Ireland Imports
Ireland imported $150.61 billion worth of goods in 2023. Organic chemicals led every category at 14.41% of the total, worth $21.70 billion. That category largely reflects pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates feeding Ireland's own drug manufacturing plants, before they get processed into the finished medicines that dominate the export side of Ireland's trade. Ireland's biopharmaceutical and chemical sector generates more than 116 billion euros in annual exports, over 60% of the country's total goods exports, making it the second-largest net exporter of complex pharmaceuticals in the European Union. Much of the raw material that feeds that export machine has to come in first as an import, since Ireland's own chemical industry doesn't produce enough active ingredients domestically to cover what its pharmaceutical plants need.
Aircraft and spacecraft parts ranked second at 13.84% ($20.84 billion), a category most countries barely register but one central to Ireland's economy. More than 64% of the world's leased aircraft fleet is managed from Ireland, an industry with over $300 billion in assets. When Ireland-based leasing companies buy new planes from manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus, those purchases register as Irish imports before the aircraft get leased out to airlines around the world. That means a handful of large aircraft orders in any given year can move the national import total by billions of dollars, independent of anything happening in the rest of Ireland's economy. Machinery and mechanical appliances added 10.63% ($16.02 billion), and pharmaceutical products, brought in for further processing or repackaging, contributed 8.93% ($13.45 billion).
Electrical machinery took 8.56% ($12.89 billion), and mineral fuels added 7.23% ($10.88 billion), since Ireland, like many small European economies, imports essentially all the oil and gas it consumes. Vehicles contributed 4.61% ($6.95 billion), and optical, photographic, and medical instruments added 3.63% ($5.46 billion), a category that partly reflects components feeding the medtech manufacturing covered on the export side of Ireland's trade. Plastics and articles thereof took 2.75% ($4.15 billion), and iron or steel articles closed out the top ten categories at 1.14% ($1.72 billion).
The UK and USA Together Supply More Than a Third of Ireland's Imports
United Kingdom supplied 18.84% of Ireland's imports in 2023, worth $28.38 billion, by far the largest single source. That reflects a legacy of geographic proximity and decades of integrated trade, even after Brexit reshaped the formal terms of the relationship. United States followed at 16.46% ($24.80 billion), and France took 12.29% ($18.51 billion), a share that plausibly reflects Airbus aircraft purchases by Irish-based leasing companies flowing through France. Together, these top three sources made up 47.60% of total import value, a somewhat lower concentration than the export side of Ireland's trade shows.
China added 7.67% ($11.55 billion), and Germany contributed 6.47% ($9.75 billion). Switzerland took 5.79% ($8.73 billion), home to major pharmaceutical and chemical suppliers of its own. Netherlands added 4.04% ($6.08 billion), and Israel contributed 2.59% ($3.90 billion), a smaller but notable technology and pharmaceutical trading partner. Spain took 2.29% ($3.44 billion), and Italy closed out the top ten list at 1.90% ($2.87 billion). No single supplier outside the top three comes close to matching the scale of the UK, USA, and France, underscoring how much of Ireland's import bill still runs through a small set of long-established trading relationships.
Import Growth Slowed Sharply in 2023 After Years of Rapid Gains
Ireland's import total climbed in four of the last five years. It stood at $101.89 billion in 2019, then eased slightly to $99.44 billion in 2020 as the pandemic curbed global trade. It surged to $122.74 billion in 2021, then jumped again to $148.50 billion in 2022. The 2023 total of $150.61 billion, up just 1.42% year over year, marks a sharp slowdown from the double-digit growth of the prior two years.
That deceleration lines up with the modest 3.17% decline on the export side of Ireland's trade the same year, both suggesting the rapid post-pandemic expansion of Ireland's pharmaceutical and chemical trade finally leveled off. Aircraft-leasing purchases can also swing significantly from year to year depending on how many new planes get delivered, adding another source of volatility that has nothing to do with the broader Irish economy. A country whose trade figures are this concentrated in a handful of specialized industries will naturally see more year-to-year noise than one with a broader, more diversified export and import base.