The University of Galway has led international research showing up to half a million people in Ireland are living with osteoporosis.
The condition causes bones to become brittle resulting in skeletal failure.
Academics and clinicians are calling for an osteoporosis care programme to be put in place as a national priority.
The findings were released to coincide with World Osteoporosis Day and using data from the Irish health service spanning 20 years.
They show half of all women, and one in four men, aged 50 years and older will suffer an osteoporotic fracture before they die.
A postmenopausal woman's annual risk of fracture is greater than her combined risk of stroke, heart attack, invasive breast cancer and death from heart disease.