| Type | Definition | |
|---|---|---|
| Urban areas | Cities | Built Up Areas with populations greater than 50,000 - using Census 2022 definitions/breakdowns |
| Satelite urban towns | Built Up Areas with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where 20 percent or more of the usually resident employed population's workplace address is in 'Cities' | |
| Independent urban towns | Built Up Areas with populations between 1,500 and 49,999, where less than 20 percent of the usually resident employed population's workplace address is in 'Cities'. | |
| Rural Areas | Rural areas with high urban influence | Rural areas (themselves defined as having an area type with a population less than 1,500 persons, as per Census 2022) are allocated to one of three sub-categories, based on their dependence on urban areas. Again, employment location is the defining variable. The allocation is based on a weighted percentage of resident employed adults of a rural Small Area who work in the three standard categories of urban area (for simplicity the methodology uses main, secondary and minor urban area). The percentages working in each urban area were weighted through the use of multipliers. The multipliers allowed for the increasing urbanisation for different sized urban areas. For example, the percentage of rural people working in a main urban area had double the impact of the same percentage working in a minor urban area. The weighting acknowledges the impact that a large urban centre has on its surrounding area. The adopted weights for: Main Urban areas is 2. Satellite urban communities is 1.5. Independent urban communities is 1. The weighted percentages is divided into tertials to assign one of the three rural breakdowns. |
| Rural areas with moderate urban influence | As above | |
| Highly rural/remote areas | As above |
This release aims to provide insight into social and economic characteristics of individuals living across a range of six geographical urban/rural defined areas, defined by population density and access to services and amenities.
This six-way experimental categorisation of urban and rural were applied to these CSO statistics:
This new six-way urban/rural categorisation was also applied to the integration of CSO datasets with pseudonymised datasets from a range of administrative data sources, to produce aggregated outputs at a geographical level which were not previously available. These administrative data sources were from:
The integration and analysis was undertaken by the CSO for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.
Before using personal administrative data for data linking purposes, the CSO removes all identifying personal information including the PPSN. The Personal Public Service Number (PPSN) is a unique number that enables individuals to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation and other public services in Ireland. The CSO removes the PPSN and creates a pseudonymised Protected Identifier Key (PIK). The PIK is a unique and non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data. All records in the matched datasets are pseudonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which do not identify any individuals.
The Census datasets contain information collected in the 2016 and 2022 censuses. They contain census attribute information for individuals and households, including guests.
The COPA is a pseudonymised copy of the Census of Population 2022 dataset held internally within the CSO for analysis purposes. It contains Census attribute information for individuals and households, excluding persons records registered as guests.
PCRS is responsible for making payments to healthcare professionals – doctors, dentists, pharmacists and optometrists/ophthalmologists – for the free or reduced costs services they provide to the public across a range of community health schemes. The schemes form the infrastructure through which the HSE delivers a significant proportion of Primary Care to the public. PCRS also manages the National Medical Card Unit (NMCU) which was established in 2011 to process all Medical Card and GP Visit Card applications at a national level.
Student Universal Support Ireland contains funding information for all higher and further education grants. SUSI offers funding to eligible students in approved full-time, third-level education.
Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in Ireland is a household survey covering a broad range of issues in relation to income and living conditions. It is the official source of data on household and individual income and also provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as the ‘at risk of poverty’ rate, the consistent poverty rate and rates of enforced deprivation.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) replaced the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) from Q3 2017. Similar to the QNHS, it is a large-scale, nationwide survey of households in Ireland. It is designed to produce quarterly labour force estimates that include the official measure of employment and unemployment in the state (International Labour Organisation classification).
The principal data source for the New Dwellings Completions (NDC) is the ESB domestic connections dataset where the date that the connection is energised determines the date of completion.
The CSO Residential Property Price Index is compiled from a variety of data sources. The principal data source is stamp duty returns made to the Revenue Commissioners. All transfers of ownership of residential properties in the State must be referred to the Revenue Commissioners for stamp duty assessment under the Stamp Duties Consolidation Act (SDCA) 1999. The data collected includes the address of the property and the sales price.
These data are matched by the CSO to Building Energy Rating (BER) data, compiled by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI). Under Statutory Instrument (S.I.) No. 243 of 2012, all residential property for sale must disclose their BER assessment (with some very minor exceptions). The BER data includes the property address, the total floor area (m2) and the dwelling type (apartment, detached house, semi-detached house, etc.). The BER data are matched to the stamp duty data using an address matching algorithm (or Eircodes, where available on both datasets).
The stamp duty returns are also matched by the CSO to the GeoDirectory (again using an address matching algorithm or Eircodes). The GeoDirectory provides the Small Area code of the property, which is used to link the property to the Haase-Pobal (HP) deprivation index. The HP deprivation index measures the relative social advantage (or disadvantage) of each Small Area and serves as a useful locational characteristic in the RPPI price model.
Only stamp duty returns where a satisfactory match is made to both a BER and the GeoDirectory (currently 75% of all returns) are used in the compilation of the RPPI.
The CSO publication Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2016 examines income in Ireland by county and by Electoral Division. Income is also examined across the areas of housing, health, education, occupation and commuting.
The main purpose of the Adult Education Survey is to produce reliable participation rates in further education for the adult population. Data is published on those aged 25 to 69 years old.
The survey produces figures on those who participated in further education broken down by gender, region, level of education, age, economic status and sectors and so on. It also explores how people access guidance on educational possibilities. It is also a source of information on the difficulties experienced by the adult population who wish to participate in education.
The 26th census since 1841 was carried out on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022 in accordance with the Statistics (Census of Population) Order 2020 and in order to facilitate the EU requirements arising from the implementing legislation associated with Regulation (EC) No. 763/2008 on population and housing censuses.
The census population figures in this report relate to the de facto population meaning persons who were present in the State on the night of Sunday, 03 April 2022. The de facto population includes persons who do not usually live in Ireland but who were in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who usually live in Ireland but who were temporarily absent, outside of the State, on Census Night. Persons who were present in the State were enumerated and are reported at the location where they spent Census Night. This may not have been the location where they usually live.
The date of the census was chosen to coincide with a period when as many people as possible were at their home address and consequently the figures closely approximate the normally resident population.
The de facto measure of the population represents all persons who were present in the State on Census Night, irrespective of whether they were usually resident in the State at the time of the census.
The usually resident and present measure of the population refers to all persons who usually live in Ireland and who were present in the State on Census Night. It excludes persons who were not usually resident in the State on Census Night but who were present and persons who were usually resident in the State but were outside the State on Census Night.
The usually resident and present measure is used when analysing topics such as country of citizenship and households and families.
Small Areas are the lowest level of geography for the compilation of statistics in line with data protection guidelines and typically contain between 50 and 200 dwellings. They were first published for Census 2011 following work undertaken by the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) on behalf of Ordnance Survey Ireland (now Tailte Éireann) and in consultation with the CSO. Census 2022 Small Areas have been redrawn to ensure they remain consistent with the principle of data protection and are relatively comparable in size. This redraw was necessary following changes in population size and distribution between Census 2016 and 2022 and was done by the CSO with support from Tailte Éireann.
A review of the geographical boundaries is undertaken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) after each Census, i.e. every five years. As part of the most recent review which took place after Census 2016, it was decided to broaden the examination of urban boundaries to include key stakeholders and a working group was formed in 2019 between the CSO, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage (DHLGH), and Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi, now Tailte Éireann). The three organisations agreed to examine urban boundaries in Ireland, and a formal methodology was developed and agreed.
The outcome of this working group was the creation of a new urban geography called Built Up Areas (BUAs) which has been used to produce Census 2022 data for urban areas. The BUAs were developed from clusters of urban development and their boundaries reflect land use for urban purposes. In order to remove the risk of statistical disclosure, the BUAs are comprised in their entirety of whole Statistical Small Areas, which were subject to a separate review following the last census. The identification of BUAs and the extent of their boundaries were generated using an objective algorithm run across the State based on building clustering and urban land use.
As BUAs have been defined differently to the Settlements used in Census 2016, it is not possible to compare them directly. BUAs and Census 2016 Settlements differ primarily in that BUAs are based upon a land-use definition whereas Settlements were based more on population concentration. This entails that there was more green space in Settlement footprints than is the case for BUAs. The BUAs will be the primary urban geography for the Census 2022 dissemination programme and will be used in the thematic publications and other statistical products. Total population from Census 2022 for the 2016 Settlements is available as part of Profile 1, but this is provided for comparison purposes only. No attribute data will be published for the Settlements as this would create disclosure risk.
Across the history of censuses in Ireland, towns have been defined in different ways. For the censuses of 1926 to 1951, a census town was defined simply as a cluster of 20 or more houses and the boundaries of towns were left to the discretion of the individual enumerator concerned. As part of the general review of towns for the 1956 census, the boundaries for the census towns were drawn up in consultation with the various Local Authorities applying uniform principles in all areas of the country. Following this, the definition of a census town was changed at the 1956 census, from 20 houses to 20 occupied houses; this definition was also applied at the 1961 and 1966 censuses.
From 1971 to 2006, Census towns were defined as a cluster of 50 or more occupied dwellings where, within a radius of 800 metres, there was a nucleus of 30 occupied dwellings (on both sides of a road, or 20 on one side of a road), along with a clearly defined urban centre (e.g. a shop, a school, a place of worship or a community centre). Census town boundaries were extended over time where there was an occupied dwelling within 200 metres of the existing boundary.
To avoid the agglomeration of adjacent towns caused by the inclusion of low-density one-off dwellings on the approach routes to towns, the 2011 criteria were tightened, in line with UN criteria.
In Census 2016, a new Census town or Settlement was defined as a minimum of 50 occupied dwellings, with a maximum distance between any dwelling and the building closest to it of 100 metres, accompanied by evidence of an urban centre (shop, school etc). The proximity criteria for extending existing 2006 census town boundaries was also amended to include all occupied dwellings within 100 metres of an existing building. Other information based on OSi mapping and orthogonal photography was also taken into account when extending boundaries. Boundary extensions were generally made to include the land parcel on which a dwelling was built or using other physical features such as roads, paths etc.
The CSO also previously published census data for legal town boundaries. The 80 legal towns were abolished as part of the Local Government Reform Act 2014.
The development of the BUAs is an example of best practice across civil institutions, maximising collaboration and, in so doing, providing a better outcome for both the citizens, departments and agencies using CSO data for decision making. For Census 2022, using the BUAs, urban areas are defined objectively, using GIS technology and a methodology agreed by an inter-governmental group.
More information on BUAs, including the rationale and the methodology for developing them can be found in this section.
For further details, please refer to the Census 2022 Urban Settlement Boundaries and Built Up Areas FAQ.
A Technical Briefing video presentation is also available.
A Technical Paper of detailed methodology is available, courtesy of Tailte Éireann.
The Shapefiles are available on the Ordnance Survey Ireland (now part of Tailte Éireann) website.
As part of Census 2022, all workers resident in the State on Census Night were geo-coded to their place of work. For the purposes of this report, the total persons at work in any particular town or city are known as the daytime working population. The term is used loosely in the sense that it includes night-shift workers along with those who are resident in the area and who work from home. The figures for daytime working populations exclude those who failed to provide information on the location of their workplace, and those who indicated they had no fixed place of work.
The term commuter refers to those who commute away from home to work, and excludes those who work from home.
There are two figures quoted in this publication relating to working from home. The first is primarily derived from Q19 on the census form which asks people how they usually travel to work, school, college or childcare. There were 259,467 people who indicated that they worked mainly at or from home based on their response to this question.
A new question (Q30) was introduced in Census 2022 which asked people who were at work whether they ever worked from home. There were 747,961 people who responded that they worked from home. These people were then asked to indicate how many days they worked from home.
A private household comprises either one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address with common housekeeping arrangements - that is, sharing at least one meal a day or sharing a living room or sitting room. In order to be included in the household, a person had to be a usual resident at the time of the census. Therefore, visitors to the household on Census Night were excluded, while usual residents temporarily absent (for less than 12 months) were included. A permanent private household is a private household occupying a permanent dwelling such as a house, flat or bed-sit. A temporary private household is a private household occupying a caravan, mobile home or other temporary dwelling.
A family unit or nucleus is defined as: 1. two persons who are married or in a same-sex civil partnership or a cohabiting couple; or 2. two married persons or a co-habiting couple together with one or more usually resident never married children (of any age); or 3. one parent together with one or more usually resident never married children (of any age). Family members have to be usual residents of the relevant household. The determination of household and family composition is based on responses to Question 4 on the census form dealing with relationships within the household.
Data on disability was derived from answers to Questions 15 and 16 of the census questionnaire. Question 15 was a seven-part question that asked about the existence of the following long lasting conditions: (a) blindness or a vision impairment, (b) deafness or a hearing impairment, (c) a difficulty with basic physical activities such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting or carrying, (d) an intellectual disability, (e) a difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating, (f) a psychological or emotional condition or a mental health issue and (g) a difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness or condition. Respondents had the option to indicate that they did not have any of these long-lasting conditions, had one or more of them to some extent, or had one or more of them to a great extent.
Question 16 was a four-part question that asked whether an individual had a difficulty doing any of the following activities: (a) dressing, bathing or getting around inside the home (self-care disability), (b) going outside the home alone to shop or visit a doctor’s surgery (going outside the home disability), (c) working at a job or business or attending school or college (employment disability) and (d) participating in other activities, such as leisure or using transport. As with Question 15, respondents could indicate that they had no difficulty with any of these activities, that they had some difficulty or that they had a lot of difficulty.
Compared with the questions used in Census 2016, there was no filter between the two questions, meaning all persons were expected to answer Question 16 irrespective of how they responded to Question 15. Furthermore, following consultation with key stakeholders, it was decided to explicitly require difficulties caused by old age as part of Question 16 on day-to-day difficulties.
Persons who ticked at least one of the boxes for 'Yes, to some extent' in Q15 or 'Yes, a little' in Q16 but did not tick any of the 'Yes to a great extent' in Q15 or 'Yes, a lot' in Q16 were used as part of the calculation of the 'disability to some extent' rate. Persons who ticked at least one of the 'Yes, to a great extent' boxes in Q15 or 'Yes, a lot' boxes in Q16 were used as part of the calculation of the 'disability to a great extent' rate. Persons who ticked any of the 'Yes' boxes in Q15 or Q16 were included in the 'disability to any extent' rate.
In Census 2022, persons aged 15 years and over were asked two questions. The first question asked if a person had ceased their full-time education. If they had answered Yes, they were then asked the age at which it ceased. The second question asked what the highest level of education completed (full-time or part-time) was. The levels ranged from no formal education to a tertiary post doctorate degree.
For the percentage figures for the education, only people who have indicated their education had ceased were included in the calculations.
The marital breakdown rate is calculated as the number of separated and divorced persons as a proportion of those who were ever married.
The usually resident and present in the State on Census Night measure of the population, referred to throughout this report, was 5,084,879 in April 2022.
This measure includes Medical Card Holders, excluding GP Visit Card Holders, under the General Medical Services (GMS) Scheme in 2022. A medical card issued by the Health Service Executive (HSE) allows the holder to receive certain health services free of charge. To qualify for a medical card your weekly income must be below a certain figure for your family size. Cash income, savings, investments and property (except for your own home) are considered in the means test.
The economic sector classification (NACE) is based on the ‘Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community, Rev. 2 (2008)’ which can be accessed on the Eurostat website.
The primary classification used for the LFS results is the ILO (International Labour Office) labour force classification. Labour Force Survey data on this basis have been published since 1988. The ILO classification distinguishes the following main subgroups of the population aged 15 or over:
In Employment: Persons who worked in the week before the survey for one hour or more for payment or profit, including work on the family farm or business and all persons who had a job but were not at work because of illness, holidays etc. in the week. It should be noted that as per Eurostat’s operational implementation, the upper age limit for classifying a person as employed is 89 years.
Unemployed: Persons who, in the week before the survey, were without work and available for work within the next two weeks, and had taken specific steps, in the preceding four weeks, to find work. It should be noted that as per Eurostat’s operational implementation, the upper age limit for classifying a person as unemployed is 74 years.
Inactive Population (not in labour force): All other persons.
The labour force comprises persons employed plus unemployed and based on Eurostat’s operational implementation is limited to those aged 15-89 years.
The participation rate refers to the share of the total population of persons aged 15 years and over who are in the Labour Force.
The employment rate for the State is defined as the share of persons in the total population of persons aged 15-64 years who are in employment.
Note there may be slight differences to the figures presented in this release compared to previously published, this is due to rounding of figures.
This is the share of persons with an equivalised income below a given percentage (usually 60%) of the national median income. It is also calculated at 40%, 50% and 70% for comparison. The rate is calculated by ranking persons by equivalised income from smallest to largest and then extracting the median or middle value. Anyone with an equivalised income of less than 60% of the median is considered at risk of poverty at a 60% level.
Households that are excluded and marginalised from consuming goods and services which are considered the norm for other people in society, due to an inability to afford them, are considered to be deprived. The identification of the marginalised or deprived is currently achieved on the basis of a set of eleven basic deprivation indicators:
Individuals who experience two or more of the eleven listed items are considered to be experiencing enforced deprivation. This is the basis for calculating the deprivation rate.
The consistent poverty measure looks at those persons who are defined as being at risk of poverty and experiencing enforced deprivation (experiencing two or more types of deprivation).
An individual is defined as being in ‘consistent poverty’ if they are
This is the relationship between cumulative shares of the population (ranked according to the level of income from lowest to highest) and the cumulative share of total income received by them, i.e. the Lorenz Curve. If there was perfect equality (i.e. each person receives the same income) the Gini coefficient would be 0%. A Gini coefficient of 100% would indicate there was total inequality and the entire national income was in the hands of one person.
Income details are collected at both a household and individual level in SILC. In analysis, each individual’s income is summed up to household level and in turn added to household level income components to calculate gross household income.
The components of gross household income are:
Total income before tax, minus income from government social transfers.
Refers to cash benefits received from local and state government.
Market income and social transfers are summed at household level to generate gross household income before any deductions are taken.
Tax and social insurance contributions are also summed to household level and subtracted from the gross household income to calculate the total disposable household income. The components of disposable household income are gross household income less:
Both nominal and real income figures are included in this release. Real income figures have been adjusted for inflation by applying a deflator to the nominal income figures. The deflator is derived from the monthly CPI and takes into account the rolling nature of the income data collected by SILC.
Equivalence scales are used to calculate the equivalised household size in a household. Although there are numerous scales, we focus on the national scale in this release. The national scale attributes a weight of 1 to the first adult, 0.66 to each subsequent adult (aged 14+ living in the household) and 0.33 to each child aged less than 14. The weights for each household are then summed to calculate the equivalised household size.
Disposable household income is divided by the equivalised household size to calculate equivalised disposable income for each person, which essentially is an approximate measure of how much of the income can be attributed to each member of the household. This equivalised income is then applied to each member of the household.
The principal data source for the New Dwellings Completions (NDC) is connections data provided to the CSO by ESB Network. More information here.
The dwelling type is defined by the ESB Network and classified into three categories:
The classification of urban and rural dwellings is also defined by the ESB Network and based on the Distribution Use of System (DUoS) tariff, which is a fee that ESB Networks charge Electricity Suppliers for use of the Electricity Distribution System. This classification is different to the Urban/Rural classification used in this release.
The results presented in this release are based primarily on a data-linking exercise of two pseudonymised Central Statistics Office data sources:
With additional insights included by data-linking with three additional pseudonymised data sources
The linkage and analysis was undertaken by the CSO for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.
The map used in the interactive map in this release is © Tailte Éireann. All rights reserved. License number CSO_TE_PSGLA1.1_2025.
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