A Profile of COVID-19 in Ireland - Using Census 2016 Household Data to Analyse COVID-19 Waves, March 2020 - May 2021

Health & Education

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Health

In wave 1, 86% of matched cases said they were in good or very good general health in Census 2016 compared with 91% in wave 3.

Of the matched cases in wave 1, 84% did not have a disability in the 2016 Census compared with 87% in wave 3.

One in five (21%) of those with a disability with COVID-19 lived in a communal setting in wave 1 compared to just 6% and 8% in wave 2 and wave 3.

Education

Patterns of highest level of education were consistent across the waves and were similar to the results in the 2016 Census.

Figure 3.3 shows the most commonly taken fields of study by those affected by COVID-19 in wave 2 and wave 3 were nursing and caring (9%), business and administration (6%), accounting and taxation (4%), building and civil engineering (4-5%) and management and administration (3-4%).

Disability	Living in a communal setting	Not living in a communal setting
Wave 1	21	79
Wave 2	6	94
Wave 3	8	92

Field of Study	Nursing and caring	Business and administration	Building and civil engineering	Accounting and taxation	Hair and beauty
Wave 1	8	2	1	2	1
Wave 2	9	6	5	4	3
Wave 3	9	6	4	4	3

Table 3.1 COVID-19 sample and general population by general health as of April 2016
	% COVID sample
General Health	Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 3	% Census 2016 population
Very good	58.2	67.0	64.1	59.5
Good	27.8	24.8	26.9	28.1
Fair	8.9	6.0	6.8	8.1
Bad	2.1	1.2	1.5	1.0
Very bad	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3
Not stated	2.7	0.8	0.5	3.0
Source: CSO

Table 3.2 COVID-19 sample and general population by disability as of April 2016
	% COVID sample
Disability	Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 3	% Census 2016 population

Total persons with a disability	16.0	12.0	12.5	13.5

Blindness or vision impairment	2.0	1.2	1.1	1.0
Deafness or a serious hearing impairment	3.0	2.4	2.4	2.0
A difficulty with basic physical activities	8.0	5.4	5.0	6.0
An intellectual disability	2.0	2.3	1.5	1.0
A difficulty with learning, remembering or concentrating	5.0	3.0	3.5	3.0
A psychological or emotional condition	3.0	2.1	2.5	3.0
Other disability, including chronic illness	7.0	6.2	6.0	6.0
Difficulty with dressing, bathing and getting around the home	2.6	2.4	2.7	3.0
Difficulty going outside the home alone, i.e. going to shop or visit doctor's surgery	3.3	3.7	3.5	4.1
Difficulty working at a job or attending school or college	3.5	3.9	4.0	4.4
Difficulty participating in other activities, i.e. leisure or using transport	4.6	4.6	4.4	5.0

Communal or Private Setting
Living in a communal setting	21.0	6.0	8.0
Not living in a communal setting	79.0	94.0	92.0
Source: CSO

Table 3.3 COVID-19 sample and general population by highest level of education as of April 2016 ¹
	% COVID sample
Highest Level of Education	Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 3	% Census 2016 population
No formal education	3.3	2.6	2.5	2.0
Primary	14.0	11.3	10.4	11.0
Lower secondary	12.6	16.6	16.0	15.0
Upper secondary	16.0	19.3	20.8	19.0
Technical / vocational	10.4	10.0	9.5	9.0
Advanced certificate/completed apprenticeship	4.6	6.6	7.8	6.0
Higher certificate	4.8	5.3	5.6	5.0
Ordinary bachelor/professional qualification or both	9.6	7.8	7.9	8.0
Honours bachelor/professional qualification or both	13.7	11.9	10.7	11.0
Postgraduate diploma or degree	9.5	7.4	7.4	9.0
Doctorate (Ph.D)	0.9	0.4	0.5	0.9
Not stated	0.6	0.8	0.9	4.1
¹ includes population aged 21 years and over
Source: CSO

Table 3.4 COVID-19 sample and general population by top 15 fields of study as of April 2016
	% COVID sample
Field of Study	Wave 1	Wave 2	Wave 3	% Census 2016 population
Nursing and caring	8.2	9.4	9.1	6.0
Business and administration	2.1	6.0	6.4	7.0
Building and civil engineering	1.2	5.4	4.2	1.0
Accounting and taxation	2.3	4.2	4.3	5.0
Hair and Beauty	1.1	3.1	3.2	1.0
Child care and youth services	1.2	3.3	3.1	1.0
Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction	1.3	2.2	4.3	3.0
Medicine	1.1	1.4	2.4	2.0
Health (broad programmes)	1.0	1.1	2.3	1.0
Management and administration	1.2	3.3	4.1	3.0
Secretarial and office work	1.4	3.2	3.1	1.0
Hotel, restaurant and catering	1.0	3.4	3.2	2.0
Teacher training and education science	1.2	2.0	2.1	1.0
Social work and counselling	1.4	2.2	2.3	1.0
Crop and livestock production	1.2	2.1	3.1	1.0
Computer science	1.3	2.3	3.2	4.0
Source: CSO