Census 2022: A snapshot of some of the facts you might have missed

But, even the most ardent reader could be forgiven for missing a few key aspects of the reports, such is their depth and breadth.

Here is just a select few facts you may have missed from the CSO's census reports last year.

Housing 

• 1,300: There were no abandoned farmhouses in Dublin City in 2022. There were more than 1,300 in Cork.
• 7: The Local Electoral Area with the least number of vacant homes on census night was Tallaght South, with just seven.
• - 2,681: This was the number of households that reported they had no piped water in 2022.
• 4,813: The number of households that reported they had no domestic sewerage system.
• 200,000: More than 200,000 households reported they had a smart domestic device that was connected to the internet. 
•  430,000 households had a games console.
• 130,000: Solar panels continue to be more common: more than 130,000 homes reported having solar panels (either to heat water and/or to generate electricity) in 2022. They were most prevalent in Meath (12% of households) and least prevalent in Dublin City (3%).

Commuting 

• 45%: The number of primary school children who walked to school in 1986. In 2022, this fell to just 25%.
• 44: The longest average commute for workers, and was reported by people in Ballivor, Co Meath. In fact, all the longest average commutes were in Meath, with Longwood (43 minutes) and Laytown-Bettystown (42 minutes) coming in a close second and third. 
• 17: By contrast, workers in Dingle and Sligo had an average commute of just 17 minutes, while those in Shannon face a daily commute of 18 minutes.
• 995: The number of people aged 65 and over who cycled to work each day. More than 6,000 walked.

Occupations 

• 130,000: The number of men who worked more than 10 hours a day in 2022. Nearly 94,000 women worked more than 10 hours a day.
•  2,597: The number of people who indicated their occupation was ‘clergy’ in 2022. This was down from 3,611 in 2011.
• 31.2: The youngest average age of any single occupation, and it was reported by sports players. At 33, veterinary nurses were the next youngest. The occupations with the oldest average ages were clergy at 59 and school crossing patrollers at 58.
• 57%: The highest proportion of workers who work from home. Malahide and Portmarnock both reported this figure, with 55% of workers in Greystones working remotely for at least some of their week too. 
• 51%: In 1986, 51% of women aged 15 or over looked after the home or family. In 2022 this had fallen to 12% of females. Over the same time period, the percentage of women at work grew from 28% to 51%.
• 29%: Between 2011 and 2011, the number of people at work rose by 29%. In the same period, the number of people who were retired went up by 44%.

Towns and islands 

• The towns with the greatest population density (most people per square kilometre) in 2022 were all in Fingal: Kinsealy-Drinan, Rivermeade, and Balbriggan.
• The towns with the lowest population density were Mín Lárach and Rann na Feirste (both Donegal) and Kilmore Quay in Wexford.
• 65: There were 65 populated islands off the coast of Ireland in 2022, with 8,931 people living on them. The most highly populated was Achill in Mayo, with 2,345 people living there. There were 23 inhabited islands with fewer than 10 people living on them.

Diversity 

• 561%: Between 2016 and 2022, there was a more than 300% increase in the number of citizens from three countries, Ukraine (561%), Syria (403%), and Chile (340%).
• 16,000: There were over 16,000 more joint Irish-UK citizens and 12,000 more Irish-US citizens than in 2016.
• 85%: Some 85% of people who said they were Jedi Knights were male, as were 84% of people who were Rastafarians. In contrast, only 31% of Spiritualists and 37% of Lutherans were male.
• 124,000: The most commonly spoken languages other than English and Irish in 2022 were Polish (nearly 124,000 speakers), French (52,000), and Lithuanian (35,000).
• 200: There are more than 200 different languages spoken in homes around the country.
• 165: The fastest growing foreign languages spoken in Ireland since 2016 were Ukrainian (165% more speakers), Hindi (154%), and Croatian (137%).

Health and smoking 

• 16%: The area with the highest proportion of people who smoke tobacco products was Galway City (16% of people) and the lowest was Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (11%). Wexford had the highest proportion of daily smokers (10% of people).
• 850: Nearly 850 children aged under 15 reported smoking tobacco products either daily or occasionally, 447 boys and 400 girls.
• 17,000: Almost 17,000 people reported they had very bad health in Census 2022. This was over 3,000 more than in 2016.

Population 

• 5: Although the population in 2022 reached the highest level since 1841, there were only five counties in 2022 that had a higher population than in 1841. These were Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath, and Wicklow. The populations of both Cork and Tipperary in 2022 remained almost 270,000 below what they were in pre-Famine in 1841.
• 130,000: More than 130,000 people spent Census Night in one of 3,893 communal establishments in 2022. More than 46,000 were in hotels, with a further 24,527 in nursing homes.
• 82,300: The entire populations of seven counties would not fill Croke Park (82,300): Leitrim, Longford, Carlow, Monaghan, Sligo, Roscommon, and Cavan. The population of Dublin would fill Croke Park 17 times over. The population of Cork would fill more than seven Croke Parks.
• 3: The highest average number of people in households in 2022 was in Meath (3.02 people), the lowest was in Dublin City (2.48).
• 1.1m: More than 1.1 million people reported they had a long-lasting condition or difficulty in undertaking everyday tasks to at least some extent.
• 30,071: There were more than 30,072 people aged 85 or over living alone in 2022, 21,372 women and 8,700 men.
• 38.8: The average age of the country rose from 36.1 in 2011 to 38.8 in 2022.
• 41.6: The youngest county in 2022 was Fingal, with an average age of 36.2. The oldest county was Mayo, with an average age of 41.6.

Copy compiled by the Central Statistics Office