This publication is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example new administrative data sources. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and limitations of this report, see the Background Notes section.
There were 34,844 deaths which occurred in 2021 across Ireland. Of these, Clontarf, Dublin City, had the highest proportion of deaths at 1.5% or 528 deaths.
Across the entire population in 2021, Belmullet, Co Mayo had the highest average age at 43.2 years, while Tallaght South, South Dublin and Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal had the joint lowest at 31.4 years.
Belmullet, Co Mayo was the Local Electoral Area (LEA) with the highest crude death rate per 100,000 at 1,324, while Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal recorded the lowest at 214.8.
Ballyfermot-Drimnagh, Dublin City (880.5) had the highest age standardised death rate per 100,000 in 2021, while Leixlip, Co Kildare (340.5) had the lowest.
In terms of cause of death, Castleisland, Co Kerry had the highest crude death rate of diseases of the circulatory system at 368.0 per 100,000, while Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal had the lowest at 48.7.
In 2021, while nationally the crude death per 100,000 of COVID-19 deaths stood at 60.2, Belmullet, Co Mayo (197.1), Dundalk-Carlingford, Co Louth (135.8), and Cork City North West, Cork City (129.0) experienced the highest rates at LEA.
While just over 4.5% of deaths which occurred nationally in 2021 were due to external causes such as accidents, suicides, assaults, and other external factors, in LEAs such as Galway City East, Galway City (11.3%), South East Inner City, Dublin City (10.8%), North Inner City, Dublin City (10.5%), Clane, Kildare (10.3%), and Ongar, Fingal (10.1%) this cause of death accounted for one in ten deaths.
All the data contained within this publication, is available in the Data Chapter.
Map 1 is an interactive map which allows users to examine various statistics across Ireland's 166 local electoral areas. Statistics include, the number of deaths occurring, crude death and standardised death rates per 100,000 of population and the average age of deaths in an LEA and also the average age of the entire LEA.
Regarding the maps presented, lighter colours correspond with the LEAs containing lower values, while darker colours indicate higher.
Users can hover their mouse over the map to see the name of the LEA and the associated value within it. Users can also zoom in on the map to see some of the LEAs that are smaller in geographical area.
Examining the data, the majority of deaths occurred in and around Dublin. Clontarf, Dublin City, was the LEA with the largest number of deaths in 2021, with 528.
In contrast, Leixlip, Co Kildare had the lowest number of deaths with 65.
Taking account of the population within each LEA allows the examination of the crude death rate per 100,000 of population. However, note that the crude death rate does not take account of the age structure within an LEA but simply the total population of the LEA. Nationally, the crude death rate stood at 660.1 per 100,000 of population. It varied across LEAs.
While Belmullet, Co Mayo recorded 168 deaths in 2021 (which would rank it joint 107th in terms of number of deaths in an LEA), when accounting for population this LEA had the highest crude death rate per 100,000 of population at 1,324.3. In contrast, Blanchardstown-Mullhuddart, Fingal, had the lowest crude rate at 214.8, and 97 deaths (which would rank it 158th in terms of numbers of deaths) . For the most part, LEAs with higher crude rates tended to have higher average ages. Belmullet, Co Mayo, not only had the highest crude death rate in 2021, but was the oldest LEA with an average age of 43.2 years. In contrast, Blanchardstown-Mullhuddart, Fingal, was the joint youngest LEA with an average age of 31.4 years.
Given the differences in age structures across LEAs it is possible to take account of these differences and produce standardised rates to allow a more comparable examination of deaths across regions. After accounting for age structure, Ballyfermot-Drimnagh, Dublin City, had the highest standardised death rate for 2021 at 880.5 per 100,000 of population, followed by Cork City North West, Cork City at 871.1. Leixlip, Co Kildare recorded the lowest standardised death rate at 340.5, with Castleknock, Fingal second at 371.5 per 100,000 of population.
The following section will examine causes of death across Ireland's LEAs.
When it came to the 34,844 deaths which occurred in 2021, Neoplasms (9,871) and Diseases of the Circulatory system (9,301) accounted for over half (55%) of the deaths occurring in 2021. The seven groupings in Figure 1 accounted for nearly 9 out of 10 (88.3%) of all deaths occurring in Ireland in 2021. Map 2 presents crude death rates per 100,000 of population by various underlying causes of death.
Below highlights the top three highest LEAs in terms of a selection of causes of death. Note that PxStat table provides not only the crude death rates per 100,000 of population but also the number of deaths occurring which users should look at in tandem in order to understand the pattern of deaths across Ireland's LEAs.
These relate to neoplasm deaths which can be benign or malignant (cancerous). In 2021, the LEAs with the three highest rates per 100,000 of population included Ennistimon, Co Clare (351.6), Belmullet, Co Mayo (346.8), and Conamara North, Galway County (296.9)
These include causes of death which relate to ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular diseases, hypertensive diseases along with other circulatory system diseases. In 2021, this rate per 100,000 of population was highest in Castleisland, Co Kerry (368), Belmullet, Co Mayo (362.6), and Bantry-West Cork, Cork County (325.5).
These include causes of death such as influenza, pneumonia, and bronchitis, as well as other respiratory diseases. In 2021, this rate per 100,000 of population was highest in Belmullet, Co Mayo (149.8), Ardee, Co Louth (123.3), and Cappamore-Kilmallock, Co Limerick (120.4).
These include deaths due to Covid-19 when the virus was identified and or not identified as part of laboratory testing. Belmullet, Co Mayo (197.1), Dundalk-Carlingford, Co Louth (135.8), and Cork City North West, Cork City (129) had the highest incidence of Covid-19 deaths per 100,000 of population in 2021.
These include causes of death which can be due to dementia, amongst other mental and behavioural disorders. Glenties, Co Donegal (99.7), Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (91.4), and Thurles, Co Tipperary (79.6) were the LEAs with the highest crude death rates for this cause of death in 2021.
These include deaths due to Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, along with other deaths relating to nervous system and sensory organs. Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim (124.1), Kenmare, Co Kerry (110.3), and Skibbereen-West Cork, Cork County (94.9) had the highest crude death rates for these diseases at LEA level.
These include deaths resulting from accidents, self-harm, assault and other external factors which cause death. In 2021, Tramore-Waterford City West, Co Waterford (61.1), Ardee, Co Louth (59.8), Waterford City South, Co Waterford (55.6), and South East Inner City, Dublin City (55.6) had the highest rates for these manner of deaths per 100,000.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 June 2024) released Deaths and Cause of Death at Local Electoral Areas (LEA), 2021.
Commenting on the Frontier publication, Seán O’Connor, Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, said: "Today’s Frontier publication provides information and evidence on the spatial distribution of deaths which occurred in 2021 at Local Electoral Area (LEA). Care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as Frontier Series releases may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete. The population utilised to calculate rates and present average age at LEAs for 2021 is taken from the Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources (IPEADS). IPEADS is an experimental and evolving platform for the development of population estimates. It must also be emphasised that as an experimental methodology, IPEADS estimates must be interpreted with caution and are not comparable with official CSO population estimates such as Census data.
From examining the data presented today it is clear to see the regional variation of deaths across the State.
Of the 34,844 deaths which occurred in 2021, some areas within Dublin City accounted for the most deaths. Clontarf, Dublin City (528), Ballymun-Finglas, Dublin City (502), and Artane-Whitehall, Dublin City (499) were the LEAs with the highest number of deaths occurring in 2021. In contrast, Leixlip, Co Kildare (65), Ballinamore, Co Leitrim (76), and Granard, Co Longford (80) recorded the lowest.
Average Age of Deaths and Entire Population in Local Electoral Areas
When it came to the average age of deaths across LEAs, Clontarf, Dublin City (82.6), Stillorgan, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (82.3) and Pembroke, Dublin City (81.9) recorded the highest average age of deaths in 2021. In contrast, Ongar, Fingal (66), Tallaght South Dublin (66.5) and Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (66.9) had the lowest average age of deaths.
Across the entire population at LEA level, in 2021, Belmullet, Co Mayo (43.2), Rathfarnham-Templeogue, South Dublin (43) and Glenties, Co Donegal (42.7) were the oldest LEAs, while Tallaght South, South Dublin (31.4), Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (31.4) and Ongar, Fingal (32.3) were the youngest.
Crude Death Rates
The national crude death rate, which is the number of deaths divided by the population in an area, stood at 660.1 per 100,000 of population in 2021. Note that crude death rates do not take account of the differences in age structures across LEAs.
LEAs such as Belmullet, Co Mayo (1,324.3), Bantry-West Cork, Cork County (1,064.2), and Glenties, Co Donegal (1,018.4) recorded the highest level of crude death rates.
Blanchardstown-Mulhuddart, Fingal (214.8), Glencullen-Sandyford, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (302.2) and Ongar, Fingal (309.1) had the lowest crude death rates per 100,000 of population in 2021.
Standardised Death Rates by LEA
Given the differences in age structures across LEAs, creating standardised death rates, allows a comparison across LEAs. Age-standardised death rates adjust for differences in the age distribution of the population by applying the observed age-specific mortality rates for each population to a standard population.
Ballyfermot-Drimnagh, Dublin City (880.5), and Cork City North West, Cork City (871.1) had the highest standardised death rates in 2021.
In comparison, Leixlip, Co Kildare (340.5), and Castleknock, Fingal (371.5) had the lowest standardised death rates.
Causes of Death by LEA
Looking at cause of death across LEAs, our analysis indicates different patterns of deaths. For instance, while the crude death rate due to neoplasms stood at 187.0 per 100,000 of population nationally, Ennistimon, Co Clare had the highest death rate for this cause at 351.6.
For external causes of death, which can include deaths due to suicide, accidents, and other external factors, nationally this rate stood at 30 per 100,000. However, at an LEA level, these crude rates were highest in Tramore-Waterford City West, Co Waterford (61.1), Ardee, Co Louth (59.8), Waterford City South, Co Waterford (55.6), and South East Inner City, Dublin City (55.6)."