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Place of Birth

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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. 

CountyAbroadOther countyIn county
Meath15.250486356290749.8564090951234.8931045485893
Kildare16.061678440186147.551123053291236.3871985065226
Wicklow14.936206407711946.890416784802938.1733768074851
Leitrim18.314627876355936.889460154241644.7959119694025
Roscommon15.987294865007939.118114159374744.8945909756173
Longford19.484205632631134.400156597910446.1156377694585
Carlow14.338254796216138.095659092918447.5660861108655
Clare15.492391518189434.27366584266450.2339426391467
Offaly12.30353697749235.061093247588452.6353697749196
Westmeath16.286781824582930.143209203547953.5700089718692
Laois14.132006161867530.553383102263355.3146107358692
Monaghan21.068889433684722.534935033096356.3961755332189
Cavan17.456064725777623.046621128722159.4973141455004
Kilkenny12.829363944605627.659422362024659.5112136933698
Tipperary12.997815387705924.177631578947462.8245530333467
Sligo15.809654441448320.555823994264163.6345215642876
Galway17.954112574812117.235677114463564.8102103107243
Waterford14.730426138593119.690271274230365.5793025871766
Wexford12.92524792804221.438622240475165.636129831483
Louth19.190985897847514.593887762213166.2151263399394
Dublin20.802058825537812.397109935790766.8008312386716
Kerry16.522894092974516.479552603984666.9975533030409
Mayo17.007290732582215.129634683613467.8630745838044
Donegal21.12206797510777.9680868038934170.9098452209989
Limerick14.089150511689814.963287295116170.9475621931941
Cork15.549055704553710.049807963667374.401136331779

Interactive Table: StatBank Link E2040

It's a Fact

  • 40% - The percentage of people born in Westmeath who lived outside the county
  • 26% - The percentage of people born in Dublin who lived outside the county
  • 13% - The percentage of people born in Donegal who lived outside the county

From county to city

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

Dublin born

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

 

Map 2.5 Percentage of Dublin residents born in another county by electoral division, 2016


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Map 2.6 Percentage of Dublin residents born outside the state by electoral division, 2016

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Map 2.7 Percentage of residents enumerated in each electoral division who were born in Dublin, 2016

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