Census of Population 2016 – Profile 11 Employment, Occupations and Industry

For the first time census data on the ‘daytime population’ of areas are being published. The daytime population includes everybody who indicated they worked or studied in the area, along with the usual residents of that area who do not work or study (and so are there during the day).

Figure 4.1 presents the daytime and De Facto (night time) population by county.

The results show that the population of Dublin City swelled to 702,159 during the day based on Census 2016 results, in contrast to its (De Facto) night-time population of 554,554, an increase of 26 per cent. Three in ten of the population of the State spent some part of their day in the Dublin Region (Dublin City, Fingal, South Dublin and Dún-Laoghaire-Rathdown). In percentage terms, Cork City (38%) had the largest difference between its daytime and night time population.

Cork county on the other hand experienced the largest negative difference between the night time population and day time population (a fall of 44,584), followed by Meath which experienced a fall of 31,115 between night time and daytime.

The release of daytime population coincides with the creation of a new geography called Workplace Zones which provides more detailed profiles of areas during the daytime, as displayed in the map below.

Percentage of workers over daytime population, 2016

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