New Census figures reveal Galway to be the singles capital

If you’re searching for love, then you’re in the right place in Galway – the city is officially the singles capital of Ireland!

Analysis of census figures reveal that 53.3% of the population living in Galway City is single.

Dublin (53.2%) and Cork (51.9%) also had high rates of singletons, while the counties with the lowest proportion of single people were Leitrim (35.8%), Roscommon (36%) and Meath (36.3%).

The Central Statistics Office said Galway had higher than average rate of single people, because it had such a young population.

“These percentages depend heavily on the underlying age structure of each county. Younger counties tend to have more single people, while older counties have more married and widowed people,” it said.

County Galway, excluding the city, had a 41% rate of singletons.

The latest in-depth look at the Census 2016, which looks at households and family make-up, reveal that although more than half of the people aged 15 and over in Galway are single, the marriage rate is growing.

There was 24,350 married people living in the city, which represented an 8.3% increase in the numbers of married people living in the city in the five years since the 2011 census.

The bulk of these were married for the first time. Some 845 of them were divorcees who had remarried. A further 87 of them were in civil partnerships.

In County Galway, there were 101 people in same-sex civil partnerships – this is the first Census since the gay marriage referendum and same sex partnership legislation was introduced.

The breakdown of Census 2016 results has found that 63,368 families were living in Galway city and county.

■ For more on this story, see the print edition of the Galway City Tribune.