County Galway’s population increases – and drops

The population of Galway City and County has increased to 258,058 over the past five years, according to new Census figures, with towns such as Athenry, Tuam, Gort, Kinvara and Clarinbridge recording the biggest increases.

Meanwhile, Clifden – the town and the rural area – saw its population decline by up to one-fifth since 2011.

The figures from the Central Statistics Office show that Galway’s population has increased by 3% from the 2011 Census (when it stood at 250,541, the first time it topped the quarter-million mark in the history of the State).

On Census night in April 2016, the county’s population stood at 179,048 – 89,612 males and 89,436 females – which was up 2.2% on the 175,124 from five years earlier. The city’s population was up 5.3% from 75,529 to 79,504 – a breakdown shows there were 41,297 females to 38,207 males.

Of the county’s major towns and villages (the county alone is broken down into more than 200 electoral areas), Kinvara and Gort were the fastest growing, up 13.7% each, more than four times the overall county rate of increase.

Kinvara was up from 1,351 to 1,536 and Gort from 2,671 to 3,037 over the five-year period.

Athenry recorded a 13.3% increase in population, from 4,828 to 5,469; Loughrea (urban) was up 9.5% from 5,062 to 5,542; while Tuam (rural) was up 9.3% from 5,520 to 6,033. The population of Ballinasloe town grew by 3.2% from 6,449 to 6,654.

Clarinbridge and Gort (rural) also recorded growth of almost three times the county average, at 8.5% – the former increasing from 13,985 to 15,170 and the latter from 3,271 to 3,578.

Other areas of growth were Craughwell (up 7.5% from 1,640 to 1,763); Furbo (up 6.9% from 1,312 to 1,403); Moycullen (up 6.7% from 2,008 to 2,143) and Tuam Urban (up 6.4% from 3,304 to 3,517).

A total of 104 of the electoral areas in the county experienced a decline in population – the worst hit was Ballynakill in South Galway with a 28.3% drop from 593 to 425.

Clifden (town) recorded a 17.9% (or 468 people) decline from 2,613 to 2,145 while Clifden (rural) was down 10.5% from 9,730 to 8,705. Both areas of Clifden recorded the biggest fall in real terms over the five-year period, losing a total of around 300 people per year.

Other locations which saw a fall in population were Ballinasloe (rural) down 2.9% from 8,267 to 8,029 and Oughterard (rural) down 1.7% from 13,220 to 12,990.

County Galway’s biggest towns are still Ballinasloe, Loughrea and Athenry in that order – each of them is still growing, according to the preliminary Census results.

The average age of Galway’s population in April 2016 was 37.5 years, compared to 36.1 years in April 2011. Nationally, the average age of the population was 37.4, up from 36.1 in April 2011. .

Nationally, Ireland’s population stood at 4,761,865, an increase of 173,613 (3.8%) since April 2011.