Urban and Rural Life in Ireland, 2019

Just over one in three in 'Cities' had a third level degree or higher in 2016

Nearly three in ten people (28.2%) who had ceased their full-time education in 2016 had a third level degree or higher. The highest proportion of people with at least a third level degree was in ‘Cities’ at 35.3%, followed by ‘Satellite urban towns’ at 31.7%. The lowest proportion was 18.3% in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’, (see Figure 7.1 and Table 7.1).

‘Upper secondary’ was the highest level of education for 27.5% of those who had ceased full-time education in 2016. This rate varied across the country, with the highest rate of 30.7% in ‘Independent urban towns’ and the lowest of 24.6% in ‘Cities’.

The proportion of people in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’ with lower secondary education as their highest level of education dropped from 43.2% in 2011 to 37.7% in 2016, a drop of 5.5 percentage points.

The largest percentage point increase in a level of education was in ‘Cities’ for those with postgraduate attainment, which rose from 11.8% to 14.3% between 2011 and 2016.

Women more likely to have a third level qualification

Women are more likely to be educated to at least degree level, with 30.8% having a third level degree or postgraduate qualification compared to 25.5% of men. This gap is strongest in ‘Rural areas with a moderate urban influence’, where 26.6% of women are educated to least degree level compared to 16.5% of men.

Conversely, men are more likely to be educated to at most lower secondary level, with 29.8% of men in this group compared to 24.9% of women. ‘Rural areas with a moderate urban influence’ has the largest gap, with 27.3% of women educated to a most lower secondary level compared to 39.0% of men.

Students and grants

In the 2016 Census, there were 120,106 residents aged 19 to 22 years who were defined as students and for whom a valid Protected Identifier Key (PIK) was assigned, (see Appendix 1: Data Sources).

The largest number of students was in ‘Cities’ (38,696), while the smallest number was 11,090 from ‘Highly rural/remote areas’.

More than half of all people aged 19-22 were students in all the area types, except for ‘Independent urban towns’ where the proportion was 47.6%.

Note that these numbers include students present at their home address and students temporarily away at college on Census night.

Over one in two students in ‘highly rural/remote areas’ applied for a SUSI grant

There were 49,243 students aged 19-22 who applied for a Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) grant, see Table 7.2, or 41.0% of all students. The proportion of students applying for a grant varied widely across the country with the highest proportion of 54.9% in ‘Highly rural/remote areas’, followed by 49.4% in ‘Independent urban towns’.

The lowest proportions of students applying for a grant was 33.2% in ‘Cities’ and 37.6% in ‘Satellite urban towns’.

View tables on Statbank