However, the proportion of people speaking our native language is falling.
Nearly four in ten people in the midlands are Irish speakers.
New analysis of the 2022 Census from the CSO shows over 90,000 people in the region can speak our native language.
However, the proportion of Irish speakers in the region has continued to fall in the past 12 years, from 40.7% in 2011, to 39.5% in 2016 and 38.8% in 2022.
Around the country, Statistician with the CSO, Deirdre Lynch, says a Galway town had the highest proportion of Irish speakers:
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