Urban and Rural Life in Ireland, 2025

Between 2016 and 2022 the population of Ireland increased by 8.4%, rising from 4.69 to 5.08 million people, (see Table 2.1 and Figure 2.1).

There were 2,942,747 people in urban areas in 2022, an increase of 293,543 people (10.0%) since 2016. Rural areas increased by 101,415 (5.8%) over the same time period.

The proportion of people living in all areas grew between 2016 and 2022, the largest increase was 12.2% in Satellite urban towns. Rural areas with moderate urban influenced saw the smallest increase, at 3.3%.

Local authorities by proportion of population in each area type

More than half the population of both Wicklow (56.7%) and Kildare (55.8%) were living in Satellite urban towns in 2022, while in Meath it was just under half (49.9%). Just over two-thirds of the people (67.4%) in Louth lived in Independent urban towns, while in Glway County, 45.7% lived in Rural areas with high urban influence (see Table 2.2).

Leitrim had the highest proportion of people living in Highly rural/remote areas in 2022 at 52.8%, followed by Donegal (40.5%), and Mayo (35.7%).

Map 2.1 allows users to view the proportion of a local authority's population living in each of the six area types.

Difference in age distribution between urban and rural areas

The population pyramids below (Figure 2.2) show the people usually resident and present in the State varied by age and sex composition. The profiles differ across area types. In Cities, there are a higher proportion of people in the 30 - 34 age groups, while in Highly rural/remote areas there are higher proportiions of people aged between 65 - 69.

Table 2.3 adds to Figure 2.2, by highlighting differences in the average age of each area. Highly rural/remote areas recorded the highest average age at 42.6 years in 2022. At 36.5 years, Satellite urban towns recorded the lowest age on average.

Average age increased across all six area types between 2016 and 2022. The area type recording the largest growth in average age were Satellite urban towns, which rose by 2.0 years over this time period, from 34.5 to 36.5.

More men than women in rural areas

The sex ratio in Figure 2.3 below shows the number of males compared females for each listed age group across each of the six area types. The shorter the line overall, the fewer men per women in that area.

Among the 65 years and over age group, highly rural/remote areas had the highest ratio of men to women with a sex ratio of 99.7 males to 100 females.

For the 25 - 44 age group, the highest ratio of men to women was recorded in Cities, at 97.1, while the lowest was in Satellite urban towns, at 90.9.

Age dependency highest in rural and remote areas, and lowest in cities

Dependents are defined as people outside the working ages of 15 to 64. Dependency ratios are used to give an indication of the age structure of a population, with young (0-14) and old (65+) people shown as a percentage of the population of working age. The total dependency ratio is the sum of the young and old ratios.

In 2022 the total dependency ratio in the State was 53.5.

Cities had the lowest total dependency ratios in 2022 at 46.1.

At 66.9, Highly rural/remote areas recorded the highest total dependency ratio and also had the greatest rise in the dependency ratio between 2016 and 2022 with an increase of 6.0 percentage points.

Rural areas with high urban influence have the highest proportion of people born in Ireland

There were 5.08 million usual residents present in the State in April 2022, and 1,017,437 (20.0%) were born outside Ireland (see Table 2.5). The proportion born outside the State varied across the six area types, from 11.7% in Rural areas with high urban influence to 24.8% in Cities.

One in four people (24.8%) in Cities were born outside Ireland, compared to 12.9% across the three rural area types.

Almost 290,000 people (5.7%) recorded their place of birth in the United Kingdom. The proportion of people born in the UK ranged from 4.1% in Cities to 9.9% in Highly rural/remote areas.

The proportion of people who usually lived in Ireland but were born in Poland was 2.1%, one third of which lived in Independent urban towns. A similar pattern can be seen for Lithuania and Latvia, where 37.6% and 38.8% of those born in these countries were residing in Independent urban towns.

Higher proportions of people born in India and Brazil lived in Cities (62.2% and 66% respectively).