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 the first time in the census, questions on travel to school and college were expanded to include childcare. This allowed the analysis of commuting patterns for children aged 0 to 4 years.
In 2022, nearly 160,000 children aged 0 to 4 travelled to childcare or school.
Three quarters of them (119,350) travelled by car.
Just over 17% travelled on foot.
A further 1% travelled by bike and 1% by bus.
At 88%, Roscommon had the highest proportion of children aged 0 to 4 years travelling to childcare or school by car. Dublin City had the lowest proportion at 44%.
The highest proportion of children travelling to childcare on foot (41%) or by bike (6%) was in Dublin City.
At the other end of the scale was Donegal with 5% travelling on foot and less than 1% by bike.
Dublin and Galway cities had the highest proportion of children travelling to childcare by public transport at 4%.
Clare had the lowest proportion of children travelling to childcare by public transport at less than 1%.
In April 2022, 563,117 children aged between 5 and 12 years travelled to school, up 3% since 2016.
Over half (55%) of them travelled to school by car.
The percentage of children going to school by car increased from 24% in 1986 to a peak of 60% in 2016.
Travelling to school by bike saw the largest increase of any means of travel since 2016 (up 88%), with nearly 6,500 more children cycling to school in 2022.
Nearly a quarter of children (24%) travelled to school on foot, a fall from 45% in 1986. However, the numbers increased between 2016 and 2022 by 4% to 133,314.
The proportion of children travelling to school by bus fell from 22% in 1996 to 9% in 2022.
The proportion of children travelling by train, DART or LUAS remained at less than 1% since 1986.
Galway County had the highest proportion of children travelling to primary school by car at 70%. The county with the lowest proportion travelling by car was Dublin City at 28%.
Dublin City and South Dublin had the highest proportion of children walking to primary school at 40%. Donegal had the lowest proportion at 8%.
Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the highest proportion of primary school children travelling to school on a bike at 7% and by train, LUAS or DART at 2%.
Donegal had the highest proportion of children travelling to primary school by bus at 22%.
Enfield in Meath had the highest percentage of children aged between 5 and 12 who were actively travelling to school on foot or by bike (64%). This was closely followed by Skerries in Dublin (63%) and Dunboyne in Meath (62%).
Children aged 5 to 12 were less likely to walk or cycle to school in Letterkenny and Ballybofey-Stranorlar, both in Donegal (7%).
The town with the highest percentage of children using public transport (bus, coach or train) to travel to school was Duleek in Meath at 34% followed by Cootehill in Cavan at 31%.
At the other end of the scale were Kilrush in Clare, Ballybunion in Kerry, Ballymahon in Longford and Mitchelstown in Cork, with less than 1% of primary school-aged children using public transport.
Tower in County Cork had the highest proportion of children travelling to school by car (82%) followed by Ballybunion in Kerry (77%).
In contrast, Enfield (25%) and Dunboyne (29%) had the lowest proportion of children aged 5 to 12 travelling to school by car.
In April 2022, 388,373 children aged between 13 and 18 years travelled to school, an increase of 11% since 2016.
A car was the most popular mode of transport to secondary school, with 41% of children travelling as a passenger.
Travelling by car (passenger) to school increased from 11% of children in 1986 to a peak of 42% in 2016.
Over a quarter of children (26%) travelled to school by bus in 2022, a fall from the peak of 39% in 1996.
Cycling to school saw the largest proportional increase, with a rise of 79% between 2016 and 2022, to over 13,000 children.
However, the overall proportion of children cycling to school decreased from a high of 15% in 1986 to a low of 2% in 2011, rising to just over 3% in 2022.
In 2022, 20% of children walked to school, down from a high of 32% in 1986.
The proportion of 13 to 18 year olds who drove to school or college increased by 32% since 2016, to 6,660 students.
Sligo had the highest proportion of children aged 13 to 18 years travelling to school/college as a passenger in a car at 54%. At the other end of the scale was Dublin City with 19%.
A small proportion of children/students aged between 13 and 18 years drove to school/college, with the highest proportion recorded in Tipperary at 3%.
Donegal had the highest proportion of children travelling by bus to secondary school/college at 42%. Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the lowest proportion at 18%.
The county with the highest proportion of children walking to school/college was South Dublin at 36%. The lowest proportion was in Donegal at 8%.
The highest proportion of children cycling to school/college was in Dublin City at 12% and the lowest was in Donegal, less than 1%.
Travelling by train, DART or LUAS to school/college was highest in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown at 14%.
Among towns with at least 1,500 people, Dunboyne in Meath (77%) had the highest proportion of children aged 13 to 18 years travelling to school or college on foot or by bike, followed by Muinebeag (Bagenalstown) in Carlow (70%).
Kill in County Kildare had the highest percentage of children aged 13 to 18 travelling to school on public transport (82%) followed by Ballivor in Meath (81%).
The highest percentages travelling to school by car were in Bearna in Galway (83%) and Strandhill in Sligo (79%).
At the other end of the scale, Donabate in County Dublin (9%) and Edgeworthstown in Longford (11%) had the lowest proportion of children aged 13 to 18 travelling to school by car.
In April 2022, 201,200 students aged 19 years and over travelled to college, an increase of 6% since 2016.
The most popular mode of transport for students in 2022 was the bus, with a quarter of students using it to commute to college. The proportion of students travelling by bus reached a peak of 28% in 1996, fell to a low of 21% in 2011 and has since risen to 25%.
Driving a car to college was the next most popular mode of transport at 24%. This proportion increased steadily from 4% in 1986 and peaked in 2011 at 28%.
One-fifth of students walked to college, down from a high of 33% in 2002.
Only 4% of students cycled to college, down from a high of 26% in 1986.
The proportion of students travelling by train, DART or LUAS remained fairly constant over time and recorded a slight increase from 7% in 2016 to 8% in 2022.
The percentage of third-level students who drove to their place of education ranged from 39% in Tipperary to 7% in Dublin City.
The highest proportion of students travelling to college as passengers in a car was in Galway County at 14% while the lowest proportion was in Dublin City at 2%.
The percentage of students travelling to college by bus was highest in South Dublin at 51% and lowest in Carlow at 11%.
Walking to college was proportionately most common in Galway City at 45%, followed by Sligo at 34%. The counties with the lowest proportion of students walking to college were Fingal and South Dublin, both at 5%.
Dublin City had the highest proportion of students cycling to college at 10%.
The counties with the lowest proportion of cyclists were Meath, Tipperary, Cavan, Monaghan and Galway, all with less than 1%.
Commuting to college by train, DART or LUAS was most common in Fingal at 24% and least common in Galway City at less than 1%.
Of the children aged 0 to 4 years travelling to childcare or school, the majority (57%) left home between 8 and 9 o’clock. A further 24% left before 8 o’clock and 11% after 9 o’clock. Just over 2% of children aged under 5 years left home before 7am.
Nearly three-quarters of primary school children, aged 5 to 12 years, left home between 8 and 9 o’clock. A further 11% travelled before 8am and 6% after 9am.
Of the children aged between 13 and 18 years, just under three-quarters left their home between 7:31 and 8:30am. A further 8% travelled prior to 7:30 and 12% after 8:30.
Among students aged 19 years and over, 54% departed home between 7:31 and 9am with a further 16% travelling prior to 7:30 and 16% after 9am.
In Census 2022, a new question was asked about the time people usually left work, school, college or childcare.
Among children aged under 5 years, 29% had left childcare by 12:30. A further 25% left between 16:31 and 17:30.
Around 6% of children aged under 5 did not usually leave childcare until after 17:30.
Some 60% of primary school aged children left school between 14:01 and 15:00. A further 10% left between 13:31 and 14:00.
Just under three-quarters of secondary school-aged children left school/college between 15:01 and 16:00. A further 13% left after 16:00.
Among third-level students, 42% left their place of education between 15:31 and 17:00, with a further 26% leaving after 17:00.
The average journey time was shortest at 12 minutes for children aged 0 to 4 years followed by primary school-aged children at 12.2 minutes. Children aged 13 to 18 years had an average journey time of 19.5 minutes. Students aged 19 years and over had the longest journey times with an average of 37.1 minutes.
Among children aged under 5 years who were travelling to childcare, the shortest journey times were in Galway County, with an average of 10.6 minutes. The longest journeys were in Dublin City at 14.2 minutes.
For children aged 5 to 12 years, the quickest journeys to school were in Galway County at 10.2 minutes. The longest journeys were in Dublin City and Galway City, both with an average time of 14.7 minutes.
The average journey time for children of secondary school age ranged between 16.9 minutes in Offaly and 21.8 minutes in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown.
For students aged 19 years and over, the shortest commutes to college were in Galway City at an average of 20.9 minutes. The longest commutes on average were in Wicklow at 53.9 minutes followed by Meath at 52.1 minutes.
Among towns with more than 1,500 residents, children aged 5 to 12 years living in Dunmore East (Waterford) had the longest average journey time to school at 19.1 minutes. Children in Athy (Kildare) had the next longest journey time at 17.9 minutes, followed by Portlaoise (Laois) at 16.6 minutes.
Children aged 5 to 12 in Kilrush (Clare) had the shortest average journey time, under 8 minutes.
Children and students aged 13 to 18 years in Newcastle (Dublin) had the longest average journey time to school/college (29.5 minutes), followed by Maigh Cuilinn (Galway) and Rosslare Harbour (Wexford), both with an average journey time of just under 29 minutes.
Banagher in Offaly had the shortest travel time to school or college for 13 to 18 year olds at 8 minutes, followed by Abbeyfeale (Limerick) and Kenmare (Kerry) at just under 8.5 minutes.
The number of children crossing the border to Northern Ireland to attend school or college increased by 3% from 2,299 in 2016 to 2,363 in 2022.
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