The CSO was established on a statutory basis in 1994 to reduce the number of separate offices responsible for collecting statistics for the state. The CSO had existed, as an independent office within the
Department of the Taoiseach, from June 1949, and its work greatly increased in the following decades, particularly from 1973 with the
Republic of Ireland joining the
European Economic Community (EEC). Previous to the 1949 reforms, statistics were collected by the Statistics Branch of the
Department of Industry and Commerce on the creation of the
Irish Free State in 1922. The Statistics Branch amalgamated a number of statistics gathering organisations that had existed in
Ireland since 1841, when the first comprehensive census was undertaken by the Irish Constabulary (later renamed as the
Royal Irish Constabulary). On 15 September 2020, on the advice of the Central Statistics Office, the Irish Government postponed the
quinquennial population
census, originally scheduled for 18 April 2021, until 3 April 2022 because of health and logistical obstacles caused by the
COVID-19 pandemic. == Head of the Office ==