The 2022 Best Countries to Travel Alone rankings are drawn from a international survey of greater than 17,000 humans and spotlight nations based totally on respondents’ perceptions of them in relation to seven united states of america attributes: culturally accessible, fun, friendly, first-class climate, safe, scenic and unapproachable.

The Republic of Ireland is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean, separated from Britain on the east with the aid of the Irish Sea. Nicknamed the Emerald Isle for its well-watered grasslands, the usa is recognised for its wealthy cultural traditions; in the Best Countries rankings the us of a automatically ranks excessive for being culturally handy and friendly. The united states of america consists of five-sixths of the island of Ireland – the closing sixth is Northern Ireland, section of the United Kingdom.

Irish tradition has been mostly influenced via the Celtic tribes who reached Ireland round the sixth century B.C. In the following centuries the united states of america persevered invasions by means of the Vikings, Normans and British. After a bloody combat for independence and civil conflict in the early twentieth century, Ireland grew to be a free country in 1921 and declared itself a republic in 1949.

Today, Ireland’s authorities is a republic with a parliamentary democracy. English and Irish, or Gaelic, are the professional languages, with the latter spoken with the aid of about 40% of the country’s roughly 5 million residents as of 2016. The usa is a member of various worldwide organizations, along with the United Nations, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Ireland has a small, trade-dependent economy. While its speedy financial increase got here to a unexpected halt in 2008, the Celtic Tiger started out roaring once more in latest years. The country’s actual gross home product increase price did gradual to below 6% in 2019 – it had been above 9% in 2018 and 2017 – earlier than the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. Ireland’s export sector, dominated by means of overseas multinationals, has grow to be an more and more essential element of Ireland's economy.

Low taxation insurance policies motivate global commercial enterprise improvement in Ireland, however had been being cautiously monitored after European Union officers slammed the state with a ruling to get better almost $15 billion in unpaid taxes from Apple, the U.S. science firm. A court docket later dominated in July 2020 that the tech large did now not have to pay the billions in lower back taxes to Ireland, however the European Commission introduced in September that it would attraction the decision.

For its small size, Ireland has a giant cultural imprint, mainly in English literature. The country’s well-known authors consist of Samuel Beckett, James Joyce and Oscar Wilde – simply to identify a few. Ireland has prosperous musical and folklore traditions and is additionally the creator of Guinness, possibly its most well-known export alongside with St. Patrick’s Day.

Long viewed a traditional, even conservative society, Ireland’s social norms are evolving, inflicting clashes between youthful generations and the Roman Catholic Church. In 2015, Ireland grew to become the first country to approve same-sex marriage. Since 2016, when the United Kingdom voted to depart the European Union earlier than formally exiting in 2020, some in Ireland have concerned the choice will motive accelerated tensions alongside the border between Ireland, which will continue to be in the EU, and Northern Ireland, which will not. More recently, preserving the land border between the two international locations free of any seen checkpoints has been considered as a “key plank” of the Brexit agreement, in accordance to Bloomberg.

Ireland is No. 23 universal in the 2021 Best Countries rankings, after now not being ranked in 2020. It additionally seems in the pinnacle 10 for the Open for Business subranking.