How many people work in Ireland's pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors, what they earn, and who they are, from the Central Statistics Office's own annual figures.
96,848 people worked in Ireland's pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors in 2025, up from 60,537 in 2019, according to the CSO. The sectors paid €7.89bn in wages, and the median employee earned €1,220 a week (€68,591 a year). 86% worked for foreign-owned companies and 43% were women. The CSO's definition includes pharmaceutical wholesale and medical-goods retail as well as manufacturing; it is set out at the foot of this page.
| Year | Employed | Change | Irish-owned | Foreign-owned | Wage bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 96,848 | +7.7% | 13,531 | 83,317 | €7.89bn |
| 2024 | 89,923 | +5.9% | 12,589 | 77,334 | €7.07bn |
| 2023 | 84,911 | +4.9% | 11,870 | 73,041 | €6.32bn |
| 2022 | 80,971 | +7.2% | 11,574 | 69,397 | €5.77bn |
| 2021 | 75,535 | +5.6% | 10,733 | 64,802 | €5.20bn |
| 2020 | 71,536 | +18.2% | 10,175 | 61,361 | €4.72bn |
| 2019 | 60,537 | — | 9,979 | 50,558 | €3.98bn |
| Year | Median weekly | Mean weekly | Median annual | Men (median) | Women (median) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | €1,219.80 | €1,552.12 | €68,591 | €1,322.43 | €1,090.66 |
| 2024 | €1,158.74 | €1,479.73 | €65,922 | €1,261.90 | €1,023.48 |
| 2023 | €1,108.88 | €1,396.26 | €63,036 | €1,213.75 | €975.63 |
| 2022 | €1,060.90 | €1,320.62 | €61,307 | €1,161.03 | €930.95 |
| 2021 | €1,020.79 | €1,280.78 | €58,452 | €1,127.24 | €896.16 |
| 2020 | €994.10 | €1,237.55 | €56,532 | €1,105.87 | €867.51 |
| 2019 | €988.64 | €1,227.78 | €56,019 | €1,100.51 | €847.12 |
In 2025 women's median weekly earnings were 17.5% below men's (calculated here from the CSO medians). Median is the middle earner; the mean is pulled up by the highest salaries.
| Highest education (2022) | Share of employees | Median weekly | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary (including no formal education) | 0.9% | €685 | €39,271 |
| Lower secondary | 5.0% | €754 | €44,071 |
| Upper secondary | 24.1% | €741 | €44,358 |
| Post leaving certificate | 13.4% | €1,020 | €58,678 |
| Third level | 56.6% | €1,295 | €73,296 |
| County | Share of employees | Median weekly | Mean weekly | Median annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Co. Cork | 17.3% | €1,395 | €1,676 | €75,258 |
| Co. Dublin | 15.6% | €1,316 | €1,658 | €72,026 |
| Co. Galway | 15.1% | €831 | €1,080 | €46,641 |
| Co. Limerick | 5.5% | €1,263 | €1,380 | €69,058 |
| Co. Mayo | 5.4% | €956 | €1,095 | €52,348 |
| Co. Tipperary | 5.1% | €981 | €1,216 | €53,651 |
| Co. Waterford | 4.9% | €1,106 | €1,296 | €59,135 |
| Co. Kildare | 3.7% | €1,420 | €1,661 | €77,095 |
| Co. Clare | 2.9% | €1,088 | €1,307 | €59,533 |
| Co. Meath | 2.8% | €1,245 | €1,521 | €68,972 |
| Co. Wexford | 2.5% | €786 | €999 | €45,000 |
| Co. Sligo | 2.2% | €979 | €1,173 | €52,768 |
| Co. Roscommon | 2.1% | €825 | €1,085 | €46,559 |
| Co. Wicklow | 2.1% | €1,273 | €1,517 | €69,143 |
| Co. Kilkenny | 1.7% | €1,151 | €1,414 | €62,365 |
| Co. Westmeath | 1.7% | €930 | €1,232 | €51,751 |
| Co. Offaly | 1.5% | €812 | €1,072 | €46,480 |
| Co. Donegal | 1.3% | €721 | €829 | €39,046 |
| Co. Longford | 1.2% | €800 | €1,028 | €44,105 |
| Co. Kerry | 1.1% | €1,314 | €1,445 | €72,137 |
| Co. Leitrim | 0.9% | €724 | €950 | €40,689 |
| Co. Louth | 0.9% | €1,272 | €1,458 | €66,546 |
| Co. Cavan | 0.8% | €1,077 | €1,254 | €58,862 |
| Co. Laois | 0.8% | €1,446 | €1,585 | €78,977 |
| Co. Carlow | 0.6% | €1,486 | €1,598 | €78,862 |
| Co. Monaghan | 0.3% | €1,016 | €1,158 | €57,800 |
County as recorded by the CSO. The CSO publishes this table for 2022 only.
What the CSO counts. An enterprise is in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors when its main activity is one of seven NACE codes: other organic basic chemicals (C2014), basic pharmaceutical products (C2110), pharmaceutical preparations (C2120), irradiation, electromedical and electrotherapeutic equipment (C2660), medical and dental instruments and supplies (C3250), wholesale of pharmaceutical goods (G4646) and retail sale of medical and orthopaedic goods (G4774). Head offices and financial companies of the same groups have different codes and are not included. Every figure here is the CSO's published value; year-on-year changes, shares and the pay gap are calculated from them.
Every figure is the CSO's published value, re-used under the CSO's Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Changes, shares and the pay gap are calculated here and labelled.
A job downloads the CSO tables every two weeks (they change once a year) and stores them unchanged. No AI drafting and no editorial pass. See our methodology. The the CSO data on this page was last retrieved on 30 Sep 2026. How every register is built: methodology · fixes we have made: corrections log.