The level of education among Travellers remained well below that of general population as clearly illustrated in Figure 2.1. Just 13.3 per cent of Traveller females were educated to upper secondary or above compared with 69.1 per cent of the general population.
Nearly 6 in 10 Traveller men (57.2%) were educated to at most Primary level in sharp contrast to the general population (13.6%).
167 Irish Travellers held a third level qualification in 2016, albeit up from 89 in 2011.
| Irish Traveller Male | Irish Traveller Female | General Population Male | General Population Female | |
| Primary (incl. no formal education) | 57.2468256426138 | 54.4303797468354 | 13.6220469797531 | 11.6556094967971 |
| Lower secondary | 22.6231031279034 | 22.0282263931325 | 16.2383969006926 | 13.1861726099757 |
| Upper secondary | 6.30226076184577 | 8.06052669867598 | 17.8696961456728 | 19.3909846937269 |
| Technical/vocational | 1.82719108082998 | 2.28430088753092 | 8.14165768632941 | 9.43760584773847 |
| Advanced and higher certificate | 1.03747290182719 | 1.46951840535428 | 12.2796628093181 | 9.45269256103057 |
| Bachelor degree or higher | 0.960049550944565 | 1.52771715408119 | 25.4663564673535 | 30.7861397402004 |
| Not stated | 10.0030969340353 | 10.1993307143896 | 6.38218301088048 | 6.09079505053086 |
Interactive table: StatBank Link E8023
There were 10,653 Travellers in the labour force in 2016 and of these 8,541 were unemployed, giving an unemployment rate of 80.2 per cent. 2,112 persons were at work in 2016.
The labour force participation rate among Irish Travellers was 57 per cent compared with 61.4 per cent for the general population.
Among females 972 were at work while 2,938 were looking after the home, representing 30.4 per cent of Traveller women aged 15 or over.
Almost 1 in 8 (11.3%) Travellers indicated they were unable to work due to a disability, nearly three times the equivalent rate for the general population (4.3%).
| Male | Female | |
| Persons at work | 12.6371799135351 | 10.0694084740495 |
| Unemployed looking for first regular job | 5.05487196541403 | 3.01460685797162 |
| Unemployed having lost or given up previous job | 50.0831393415364 | 33.9376359680928 |
| Student or pupil | 10.2427668772863 | 9.8518595255361 |
| Looking after home/family | 2.67154417470347 | 30.4361338444007 |
| Retired | 3.74681299190777 | 2.70382264580959 |
| Unable to work due to permanent sickness or disability | 13.6126815208957 | 9.21993162747332 |
| Other economic status | 1.95100321472121 | 0.766601056666321 |
Interactive table: StatBank Link E8008
| Table 2.1 Main Occupations of Irish Travellers, 2016 | |||
| Persons | Male | Female | |
| Caring personal service occupations | 235 | 22 | 213 |
| Elementary administration and service occupations | 228 | 103 | 125 |
| Elementary trades and related occupations | 144 | 139 | 5 |
| Sales occupations | 129 | 78 | 51 |
| Skilled construction and building trades | 122 | 122 | 0 |
| Health and social care associate professionals | 117 | 45 | 72 |
| Process, plant and machine operatives | 113 | 90 | 23 |
| Administrative occupations | 86 | 34 | 52 |
| Skilled agricultural and related trades | 81 | 80 | 1 |
| Transport and mobile machine drivers and operatives | 74 | 73 | 1 |
| Skilled metal, electrical and electronic trades | 63 | 62 | 1 |
| Leisure, travel and related personal service occupations | 62 | 27 | 35 |
| Other stated occupations | 280 | 185 | 95 |
| Total | 1,734 | 1,060 | 674 |
It's a Fact
Irish Travellers continued to have higher rates of disability than the general population with almost 1 in 5 Travellers (19.2%) categorised as having a disability in 2016, up from 17.5 per cent in 2011.
A total of 5,963 Travellers had a disability of some sort in 2016, with 18,717 disabilities recorded.
The most common type of disability was difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness’ with 2,658 persons, followed by a ‘difficulty with basic physical activities’ (2,363).
| Number of Disabilities | |
| Blindness or a serious vision impairment | 528 |
| Deafness or a serious hearing impairment | 656 |
| A condition that substantially limits one or more basic physical activities | 2363 |
| An intellectual disability | 1228 |
| Difficulty in Learning, remembering or concentrating | 2311 |
| Psycholological or emotional condition | 1723 |
| Other Disability, including chronic illness | 2658 |
| Difficulty in dressing, bathing or getting around inside the home | 1466 |
| Difficulty in going outside the home alone | 1871 |
| Difficulty in working or attending school/college | 1906 |
| Difficulty in participating in other activities | 2007 |
Interactive table: StatBank Link E8046
| Disability | No Disability/Not stated | |
| Irish Traveller | 19.2435537483461 | 80.7564462516539 |
| General Population | 13.5058637739625 | 86.4941362260375 |
The majority of Irish Travellers were living in private dwellings with a small number, 639, enumerated in communal establishments.
Figure 2.5 presents Irish Travellers households by type of accommodation. Increases can be seen in all categories while the number of caravans or other mobile or temporary structures increased by 10.3 per cent between 2011 and 2016 after falling substantially between 2006 and 2011.
The census publication Profile 1 - Housing in Ireland looked at households where the number of persons exceeded the number of rooms as a measure of overcrowding. Figure 2.6 shows households by the number of persons per room (excluding not stated responses) for both Irish Travellers and the total population. Nearly two in five Irish Traveller households (39.1%) had more persons than rooms compared with less than six per cent of all households.
The number of Irish Travellers recorded as homeless in 2016 was 517, see Profile 5 - Homeless Persons in Ireland.
| 2006 | 2011 | 2016 | |
| Detached House | 1133 | 1837 | 2123 |
| Semi-Detached House | 1322 | 2448 | 2597 |
| Terraced House | 1329 | 1714 | 1919 |
| Flat/apartment/bedsit | 342 | 580 | 678 |
| Caravan or other mobile temp structure | 1355 | 920 | 1015 |
| More than one | Exactly one | Less than one | |
| Irish Travellers | 2191 | 949 | 2437 |
| Total Population | 95013 | 135149 | 1373450 |
Irish Traveller households had a lower home ownership rate than the general population with 1 in 5 (20.0%) households owning their home compared to over two-thirds (67.6%) for the general population. The number of Irish Traveller households who owned their home outright increased by 22.8 per cent to 1,133 in 2016.
Of the 6,016 Irish Traveller households who were renting their home, the majority (65.5%) were renting from a local authority, an increase from 3,317 to 3,938 households. There were 1,835 Irish Traveller households renting from a private landlord in 2016, a decrease from 2,257 in 2011.
| Table 2.2 Irish traveller households by nature of occupancy, 2011-2016 | ||||
| Nature of Occupancy | 2011 | 2016 | Change | % change |
| Own with mortgage or loan | 586 | 613 | 27 | 4.6 |
| Own outright | 923 | 1,133 | 210 | 22.8 |
| Rented from Private landlord | 2,257 | 1,835 | -422 | -18.7 |
| Rented from Local Authority | 3,317 | 3,938 | 621 | 18.7 |
| Rented from Voluntary housing body | 206 | 243 | 37 | 18.0 |
| Living rent free | 176 | 221 | 45 | 25.6 |
| Not stated | 300 | 734 | 434 | 144.7 |
| Total number of Households containing Irish Travellers | 7,765 | 8,717 | 952 | 12.3 |
The level of internet access for Irish Traveller households is lower than that of the general population as can be seen in Figure 2.7 below.
The percentage of Irish Traveller households with no internet fell to 59.9 per cent in 2016 from 71.7 per cent in 2011.
| Irish Traveller | General Population | |
| With internet access | 34.0613026819923 | 78.5824650136341 |
| Without internet access | 59.904214559387 | 18.308128181418 |
| Not stated | 6.03448275862069 | 3.10940680494787 |
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