Census shows Traveller population surge

Date Published: 29-Mar-2012

By Dara Bradley

The Traveller population in Galway City has jumped by 40% in the past five years, according to the Census 2011 results.

The first definitive results of the 2011 census, undertaken just less than a year ago on April 10, were released on Thursday and show there are 1,667 Travellers living in Galway City. This is 478 more than when the last Census was taken in 2006.

Galway City, at 22.1 Travellers per 1,000 of population, has the highest proportion of Travellers anywhere in the State. Nationally, the proportion of Travellers per 1,000 of population is 6.4.

The total population of Galway City is 75,529, which is an increase of 3,115 or 4.3 per cent since the last Census in 2006. The total population of Galway, including the city, is 250,653, up by almost 20,000 in the past five years. This is only a slight change on the preliminary Census 2011 figures, released last year and detailed in the Galway City Tribune.

One quarter of all people living in Galway City were born outside of Ireland. Poland, with 3,891 people, is the largest grouping of non-Irish people living in the city.

There are 3,628 from England and Wales, 886 from the United States, 791 from Nigeria, 714 from Lithuania, followed by 690 from Northern Ireland, 486 from Latvia, 427 from India, 368 from Romania, 343 from Germany and 324 from France.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.