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.
For Census 2022, the Central Statistics Office has introduced a new way of defining urban areas. These new urban areas, or Built Up Areas (BUAs) were developed in conjunction with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and Ordnance Survey Ireland (now Tailte Éireann). The new BUA boundaries were created using a different approach to the Settlements used in Census 2016 so there is no direct comparison of the data for urban areas between the two censuses in this publication. Where the word 'town' is used in this release, it is referring to the BUAs. For more information about BUAs, please see Census 2022 Urban Settlement Boundaries and Built Up Areas.
The top 10 largest towns in the State remained almost the same compared with the settlements in 2016. Naas joined the list of the top 10 largest towns, while Newbridge dropped out. Some towns also moved places on the list. In 2022, Swords was the third largest town in the State, replaced by Dundalk as the second largest.
County Louth had the two largest towns in the State, Drogheda with 44,135 people and Dundalk with 43,112 people.
The next three, all in Leinster, had populations of over 30,000: Swords (40,776), Navan (33,886) and Bray (33,512).
Ennis (27,923) was sixth at State level and the largest in Munster; three other towns in this province had over 18,000 people – Tralee (26,079), Clonmel (18,369) and Carrigaline (18,239).
The largest town in Connacht was Sligo, with a population of 20,608 while Letterkenny was the largest in Ulster (part of) with 22,549 people enumerated there in 2022.
Of the 49 towns with a population of 10,000 or more, two thirds, or 33, were in Leinster, 11 in Munster, three in Connacht and two in Ulster (part of).
In Census 2022, out of the 164 towns with a population of 1,500 to 10,000 people, there were 12 towns that had an average age under 33 years.
Of these 12 towns, eight were in Leinster, three in Munster and one was in Connacht.
Saggart in Dublin, with an average age of 30.4 years, was the youngest town in 2022.
Of the eight towns in Leinster, three were in County Dublin (Saggart, Kinsealy-Drinan and Newcastle) or in surrounding counties such as Meath (Enfield and Stamullen), Kildare (Kilcock), Louth (Tullyallen) and Wicklow (Rathnew).
The remaining four towns were close to Cork City (Watergrasshill, Rathcormac and Carrigtwohill) and Galway City (Baile Chláir).
In Census 2022, out of the 164 towns with a population of 1,500 to 10,000 persons, there were 12 with an average age above 42 years.
Out of these 12 towns, seven were in Munster, two in Leinster, two in Connacht and one in Ulster (part of).
Ballyshannon in Donegal and Dingle-Daingean Uí Chúis in Kerry, both with an average age of 44.4 years, were the oldest towns in 2022.
Three quarters of the oldest towns were in the west of Ireland: in Kerry (Dingle-Daingean Uí Chúis, Ballybunion, Listowel and Castleisland), Roscommon (Boyle and Castlerea), Donegal (Ballyshannon), Cork (Bantry) and Clare (Kilrush).
The remaining three towns were in Wexford (Rosslare), Kilkenny (Graiguenamanagh-Tinnahinch) and Limerick (Kilmallock).
Of the 49 towns with a population over 10,000 people in Census 2022, 10 had an average age under 36 years.
Of these 10 towns, eight were either in County Dublin, or in nearby counties such as Meath, Kildare and Laois.
Balbriggan in Dublin, with an average age of 33.6 years, was the youngest large town in 2022.
Munster and Ulster (part of) both had one large town with an average age under 36, Carrigaline in County Cork and Cavan town, respectively.
There were no large towns in Connacht with an average age under 36.
Fourteen large towns in nine counties had an average age of 39 years or higher in Census 2022.
Among these, three were in Dublin (Portmarnock, Malahide and Skerries), two in Mayo (Ballina and Castlebar) and another two were in Kerry (Killarney and Tralee).
Clonmel in Tipperary, with an average age of 40.8 years, was the oldest town in 2022.
Clonmel, Wexford, Portmarnock, Malahide, Dungarvan, Bray and Killarney, all had an average age of over 40 years.
Among the oldest towns, the most highly populated were Bray, Kilkenny, Tralee, Wexford, Sligo, Malahide and Clonmel.
With the exception of Malahide, these towns were the most highly populated towns within their county in 2022.
Over the last 181 years, between 1841 and 2022, the population of Dublin increased in all but one intercensal period (1861 to 1871). This was not the case for other counties, where generally, the population declined until the 1960s and 1970s and increased steadily after then.
In 2022, the counties with the largest populations were Dublin, Cork, Galway, Kildare and Meath.
In 1841, the counties with the largest populations were Cork, Galway, Tipperary, Mayo and Dublin.
The population in 2022 was larger than in 1851, this being the first time in 171 years that the State's population exceeded the five million threshold.
In this period, 1851 to 2022, just five counties saw an increase in their population.
These were Dublin (260% increase), Kildare (159% increase), Wicklow (57% increase), Meath (57% increase) and Louth (30% increase).
Between 1841 and 2022, the population of the four largest counties in 1841 decreased considerably.
Mayo had 65% fewer people, Tipperary 61% fewer, Galway 37% fewer and Cork had 32% fewer people.
The age profile of each county shows considerable differences across the State in 2022.
There were relatively fewer children and large cohorts of young adults in areas such as Dublin City and Galway City.
In other counties, there were higher proportions of children under 20 and adults in their 30s and 40s; see population pyramids for Galway County, Kildare and Clare.
Comparing the age pyramids for Galway County and Galway City is a good illustration of markedly different age composition between two areas.
Over 60% of the population were either in cities and their suburbs or outside towns or cities and their suburbs on Census Night. The remaining 40% of the population were enumerated in one of the 862 towns (this figure excludes the cities and suburbs of Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford).
One third of the population, or 1.7 million people were in cities and suburbs in 2022.
Just below 30%, or 1.5 million people were outside cities and suburbs or towns on Census Night.
Towns with a population of 10,000 or over made up over 18% of the State’s population, with just under 1 million people.
There were 649 towns with population of under 1,500 people; these towns had a higher percentage share (7%) of the overall population than towns 5,000 – 9,999 people (6%), towns 2,000 – 4,999 people (5%) and towns 1,500 – 1,999 people (2%).
Population density measures the number of persons occupying a geographical area in proportion to the size of that area. Electoral Divisions (EDs) are the most detailed administrative areas published in this report. They facilitate in depth insight into many aspects of local populations within county boundaries.
In Census 2022, the population density of the State was 73 people per km2.
Dublin and Cork Cities had some of the most densely populated Electoral Divisions.
Of the 32 Electoral Divisions that had over 10,000 people per km2 in 2022, 25 were in Dublin, five were in Cork, one in Waterford and one in Limerick.
In Census 2022, Dublin City and suburbs had 3,659 people for every square kilometre.
Of all the towns with a population of 1,500 people or over, Kinsealy-Drinan in Dublin was the most densely populated, with 8,401 people per km2, followed by Balbriggan also in Dublin, with 5,481 people per km2.
Map 1.1 was updated on 15 August 2023 due to an error detected in the CSO Electoral Divisions boundary file. Figures for the CSO Electoral Divisions Dalkey-Coliemore and Shankill-Rathsallagh were corrected.
The population of inhabited islands in 2022 was 8,931, which was an increase of 175 people from 2016.
The top five islands by population were the same as in 2016.
These were Acaill in Mayo, Garmna in Galway, Inis Mór in Galway, Valencia in Kerry and Leitir Móir in Galway.
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