The Irish Health Survey is a voluntary survey conducted annually. In Irish law, it is carried out under Section 24 of the Statistics Act, 1993, which allows this Office to invite people to provide information on a voluntary basis. The Irish Health Survey was designed in line with the fourth wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). The survey fulfils the need for public health policies to obtain reliable data on health status, health care usage and health determinants. It allows for health comparisons to be made across Europe. As part of the survey, information is collected from participants about general self-perceived health, self-reported longstanding illnesses and longstanding health problems, and self-reported long-standing limitations in activities people usually do because of health problems. From 2024, the IHS contained a short children’s health module which is responded to by proxy by the children’s guardians. This will also be asked annually from 2024.

Probability: Simple random. A simple random sampling (SRS) method without stratification was used to select approximately 30,000 persons aged 2 years and over from the Census 2022 frame. With an SRS approach, every individual within the target population had an equal chance of selection regardless of demographics characteristics such as sex, age or self-perceived general health status. Approximately 24,000 persons aged 18 years and over were selected to complete the Irish Health Survey questionnaire for adults. The guardians of approximately 6,000 children aged 2 to 17 years of age were selected to complete the Irish Health Survey questionnaire for children (by proxy).

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Telephone interview: Computer-assisted (CATI)