This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
The 26th census since 1841 was carried out on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022 in accordance with the Statistics (Census of Population) Order 2020 and in order to facilitate the EU requirements arising from the implementing legislation associated with Regulation (EC) No. 763/2008 on population and housing censuses.
The census population figures in this report relate to the de facto population meaning persons who were present in the State on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022. The de facto population includes persons who do not usually live in Ireland but who were in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who usually live in Ireland but who were temporarily absent, outside of the State, on Census Night. Persons who were present in the State were enumerated and are reported at the location where they spent Census Night. This may not have been the location where they usually live.
The 26th census was originally scheduled to take place on the night of Sunday, 08 April 2021. Following advice from the CSO, the government decided in September 2020 to postpone the census for approximately one year owing to the ongoing difficulties arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the purposes of census enumeration, the State was divided into 6 Census Liaison Areas, 46 Regions, 466 Field Districts and 5,100 Enumeration Areas. Census Enumerators were assigned to these Enumeration Areas and, during the five weeks before Census Night, delivered census questionnaires to all dwellings that were expected to be occupied on Sunday, 03 April 2022. Each address within an Enumeration Area was recorded as either occupied, unoccupied or not suitable for habitation.
The collection of completed questionnaires took place between Monday, 04 April and Friday, 06 May 2022.
The data in this report is based on the information handwritten on the census forms. After collection, the census forms were returned to CSO where they were scanned to capture and digitize the handwritten information. This digitised information was then processed to prepare it for publication.
The date of the census was chosen to coincide with a period when as many people as possible were at their home address and consequently the figures closely approximate the normally resident population.
The de facto measure of the population represents all persons who were present in the State on Census Night, irrespective of whether they were usually resident in the State at the time of the census.
The usually resident and present measure of the population refers to all persons who usually live in Ireland and who were present in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who were not usually resident in the State on Census Night but who were present and persons who were usually resident in the State but were outside the State on Census Night.
The usually resident and present measure is used when analysing topics such as country of citizenship and households and families.
The reference person in each private household is the first person in the household identified as a parent, spouse, cohabiting partner or head of a non-family household containing related persons. Where no person in the household satisfied these criteria, the first usually resident person was used as the reference person. In this publication, the reference person is referred to as the ‘head of household’.
There are many different territorial divisions of the country used in the census. The most important of these are defined below.
Small Areas were first published for Census 2011 following work undertaken by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) on behalf of Ordnance Survey Ireland (now Tailte Éireann) and in consultation with the CSO. They were designed as the lowest level of geography for the compilation of statistics in line with data protection guidelines and typically contain between 50 and 200 dwellings. A further constraint imposed when creating these new areas was that they nested within Electoral Division boundaries. Finally, they are generally comprised either of complete townlands or neighbourhoods.
Small Area attribute data from Census 2022 will be released on 21 September 2023. The Small Areas used in Census 2022 have been redrawn to ensure they remain consistent with the principle of data protection and are relatively comparable in size. This redraw was necessary following changes in population size and distribution between 2016 and 2022 and was done by the CSO with support from Tailte Éireann.
Electoral Divisions are the smallest legally defined administrative areas in the State.
Previously known as District Electoral Divisions (DEDs)1, they were initially subdivisions of poor law unions, grouping one or more townlands together to elect members to a Board of Guardians. The DED boundaries were drawn by a Poor Law Boundary Commission, with the intention of producing areas of roughly equal 'rateable value' as well as population. EDs are mostly contiguous but may bear little relation to natural community boundaries.
There are 3,440 official Electoral Divisions (EDs) in the State. However, one ED, St. Mary's, straddles the Louth-Meath county border, and was presented in two parts in the 2016 Census publications split along the county border which resulted in 3,441 EDs. However, in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some ED boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. This has had the effect of amalgamating some EDs and splitting others. The amending of the Cork City and Cork County boundaries necessitated a redrawing of Electoral Division boundaries within Cork to ensure all EDs in the county were suitable for production of statistical data. For Census 2022, the CSO is publishing data for 3,420 Electoral Divisions.
The shapefiles for the Electoral Divisions used in Census 2022 are available on OSi (now Tailte Éireann).
1The term District Electoral Division was changed to Electoral Division by Section 23 of the Local Government Act, 1994 with effect from 24 June 1996 (S.I. 196 of 1996 refers).
Under the Local Government Reform Act, 2001 (S.I. 591 of 2001), the areas formerly known as County Boroughs are now called Cities.
The Local Government Reform Act 2014 Section 9 provided for the amalgamation of the city and county councils in Limerick and Waterford, and North Tipperary and South Tipperary County Councils. The newly amalgamated councils are called Limerick City and County Council, Tipperary County Council and Waterford City and County Council.
In census reports, the country is divided into 26 counties/administrative counties and the five cities. Outside Dublin, there are 23 administrative counties and four cities: Cork, Limerick, Waterford and Galway. In Dublin, the four local authority areas are identified separately: Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin.
The boundaries of the cities are subject to periodic extensions to keep pace with building development and it is therefore not possible to show comparable retrospective population figures over an extended period. Changes made in 2019 to the Cork City and Cork County boundaries entail that a direct comparison with Census 2016 data is not possible. Counties, on the other hand, have only been affected to a very minor extent by boundary changes and it is possible to compare county populations (including the appropriate cities) over a long period of time. This is done in Table F1001, which shows county population figures for each census year from 1841 to 2022.
For the purpose of elections to Dáil Éireann, the country is divided into Constituencies which, under Article 16.4 of the Constitution of Ireland, have to be revised at least once every 12 years with due regard to changes in the distribution of the population. The Constituencies were last revised in 2017 and the Schedule to the Electoral (Amendment) (Dáil Constituencies) Act 2017 contains details of their composition. The 2022 population figures for these areas are given in Table FY005.
For the purposes of Local Authority elections, each county and city is divided into Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) which are constituted on the basis of Orders made under the Local Government Act, 1941. Statutory Instruments 610-638 of 2018 and 6-8, 27-28, 156-157 of 2019 state the current composition of LEAs and their subsequent amalgamation into Municipal Districts.
In general, LEAs are formed by aggregating Electoral Divisions. However, in a number of cases, Electoral Divisions are split between LEAs and in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some LEA boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. As a result of these amendments, Census 2022 LEAs are comprised of whole Census 2022 Electoral Divisions. Population figures for Local Electoral Areas are given in Table F1016.
80 Legal Town boundaries were abolished under the Local Government Reform Act 2014.
Historically, for the censuses of 1926 to 1951, a census town was defined simply as a cluster of 20 or more houses and the boundaries of towns were left to the discretion of the individual enumerator concerned. As part of the general review of towns for the 1956 census, the boundaries for the census towns were drawn up in consultation with the various Local Authorities applying uniform principles in all areas of the country. Following this, the definition of a census town was changed at the 1956 census, from 20 houses to 20 occupied houses; this definition was also applied at the 1961 and 1966 censuses.
From 1971 to 2006, census towns were defined as a cluster of 50 or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres, there was a nucleus of 30 occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or 20 on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre (e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre). Census town boundaries were extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary.
To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low-density one-off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria.
In Census 2016, a new Census town or Settlement was defined as a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, accompanied by evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc.). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on OSi (now Tailte Éireann) mapping and orthogonal photography was also taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc.
For Census 2016, census towns which previously combined legal towns and their environs were newly defined using the standard census town criteria (with the 100 metres proximity rule). For some towns, the impact of this was to lose area and population compared with previous computations.
Following Census 2016, the CSO, Ordnance Survey Ireland (now Tailte Éireann) and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage began collaborating on a new type of urban geography that would be used to define towns for the census. The result of this collaboration was the introduction of Built Up Areas (BUAs). One of the key advantages to BUAs for statistical data production is that their boundaries are contiguous with Small Area boundaries which eliminates the possibility of statistical disclosure. This entails that BUAs entirely nest within Small Areas.
The introduction of BUAs as the primary urban geography for Census 2022 means that a direct comparison with Census 2016 town data is not possible. However, in order to provide a guide to users, the CSO has made Census 2022 total population figures available for the Census 2016 town boundaries. These can be found in the Appendix Table 1 below.
For further details on BUAs, please refer to the Census 2022 Urban Settlement Boundaries and Built Up Areas.
The Shapefiles for the new BUAs are available on the Ordnance Survey Ireland (now part of Tailte Éireann) website.
The Gaeltacht Areas Orders, 1956, 1967, 1974 and 1982 defined the Gaeltacht as comprising 155 Electoral Divisions or parts of Electoral Divisions in the counties of Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Meath and Waterford. The population of these Electoral Divisions or parts thereof is given in the Appendix Table 2 Population of Gaeltacht by Limistéir Pleanála Teanga Ghaeltachta by Sex, 2022 below.
The 2012 Gaeltacht Act defined 26 distinct Language Planning Areas within the Gaeltacht and figures are found in Table F1041.
In 2022, the population of inhabited islands off the coast is shown in Tables F1019 and F1042. In some cases, the areas of land concerned may not, strictly speaking, be considered as islands since they are connected to the mainland by a causeway or bridge, or may be reached by land at low tide. However, they have been retained unchanged in the present publication in order to provide continuity with previous censuses.
The measurement of area in square kilometres is shown in Tables F1013 and F1011. The areas shown are inclusive of water bodies. Population density is calculated as total persons divided by number of square kilometres.
The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. The NUTS classification has been used in EU legislation since 1988, but it was only in 2003 that the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003).
Revisions were made to the NUTS boundaries in 2016 giving them legal status under Commission Regulation (EU) 2016/2066 amending annexes to NUTS Regulation 1059/2003. Population figures for regional authorities are given in Table FY071.
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