The place of birth of the usual residents of each county is presented in Figure 2.1.
Of the 194,302 usual residents of County Meath in April 2016, only 67,798 (34.9 per cent) were born in the county, the lowest percentage of any county in the State. Half of all residents in Meath were born elsewhere in Ireland. In general, the commuter belt counties of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow had the highest percentage of residents that were not born in the county.
At the other end of the scale almost three quarters of Cork residents were born in the county, with only 10 per cent being born in another county in Ireland and 15.5 per cent born abroad.
Of the 1.3 million usual residents in Dublin 880,457 (67 per cent) were born in the county, a further 163,398 were born elsewhere in Ireland and 274,178 were born abroad.
| County | Abroad | Other county | In county |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meath | 15.2504863562907 | 49.85640909512 | 34.8931045485893 |
| Kildare | 16.0616784401861 | 47.5511230532912 | 36.3871985065226 |
| Wicklow | 14.9362064077119 | 46.8904167848029 | 38.1733768074851 |
| Leitrim | 18.3146278763559 | 36.8894601542416 | 44.7959119694025 |
| Roscommon | 15.9872948650079 | 39.1181141593747 | 44.8945909756173 |
| Longford | 19.4842056326311 | 34.4001565979104 | 46.1156377694585 |
| Carlow | 14.3382547962161 | 38.0956590929184 | 47.5660861108655 |
| Clare | 15.4923915181894 | 34.273665842664 | 50.2339426391467 |
| Offaly | 12.303536977492 | 35.0610932475884 | 52.6353697749196 |
| Westmeath | 16.2867818245829 | 30.1432092035479 | 53.5700089718692 |
| Laois | 14.1320061618675 | 30.5533831022633 | 55.3146107358692 |
| Monaghan | 21.0688894336847 | 22.5349350330963 | 56.3961755332189 |
| Cavan | 17.4560647257776 | 23.0466211287221 | 59.4973141455004 |
| Kilkenny | 12.8293639446056 | 27.6594223620246 | 59.5112136933698 |
| Tipperary | 12.9978153877059 | 24.1776315789474 | 62.8245530333467 |
| Sligo | 15.8096544414483 | 20.5558239942641 | 63.6345215642876 |
| Galway | 17.9541125748121 | 17.2356771144635 | 64.8102103107243 |
| Waterford | 14.7304261385931 | 19.6902712742303 | 65.5793025871766 |
| Wexford | 12.925247928042 | 21.4386222404751 | 65.636129831483 |
| Louth | 19.1909858978475 | 14.5938877622131 | 66.2151263399394 |
| Dublin | 20.8020588255378 | 12.3971099357907 | 66.8008312386716 |
| Kerry | 16.5228940929745 | 16.4795526039846 | 66.9975533030409 |
| Mayo | 17.0072907325822 | 15.1296346836134 | 67.8630745838044 |
| Donegal | 21.1220679751077 | 7.96808680389341 | 70.9098452209989 |
| Limerick | 14.0891505116898 | 14.9632872951161 | 70.9475621931941 |
| Cork | 15.5490557045537 | 10.0498079636673 | 74.401136331779 |
Interactive Table: StatBank Link E2040
It's a Fact
Maps 2.1 to 2.4 present the county of birth of the Irish born residents of the cities and suburbs of Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford.
Of the 169,876 persons living in Cork city and suburbs 146,643 (86.3 per cent) were born in Cork (county), a further 3,582 (2.1 per cent) were born in Kerry and 3,211 were born in Limerick. There were only 82 Leitrim born persons and 100 Longford born persons resident in Cork at the time of the census, while 8,850 persons (5.2 per cent) had been born in Leinster.
Galway city and suburbs, on the other hand, drew its Irish born residents from a wider range of counties, with only 38,811 of its Irish born population of 57,298 born in the county. Dublin born persons accounted for 3,693 of Galway’s population, while there were 3,113 residents born in Mayo. In contrast with Cork, almost 12 per cent of the Irish born residents in Galway were born in Leinster.
Interactive Table: StatBank Link E2039
A total of 1.2 million persons stated that their county of birth was Dublin of which 64 per cent were living in Dublin city and suburbs.
Map 2.7 shows the percentage of Dublin born residents living in each Electoral Division.
Examining the usual residence of the population who stated that their place of birth was Dublin but living elsewhere, over half of persons living in the towns of Johnstown (56 per cent) and Kill (53 per cent) in Kildare, and Ratoath (55 per cent) in Meath, were Dublin-born.
A total of 109,746 (9.2 per cent) residents who were born in Dublin were living in the rural countryside (i.e. not in any census settlement).
Interactive Table: StatBank Link E2038
