Offaly's population now over 83,000 and county is one of most Catholic in country

The population of Offaly grew by 7% to 83,150 between April 2016 and April 2022, results from Census 2022 revealed this week.

This means the the number of people in the county rose by 5,189.

Over the same period, Ireland's population grew by 8% from 4,761,865 to 5,149,139.

It was the first time the population of Ireland was recorded at over five million since the time of the Famine.

The entire island of Ireland now a population of just over seven million people.

Since 2016, population growth has occurred in every county, with the highest growth generally occurring among eastern counties including Kildare, Meath, Fingal, and Longford.

Of Offaly’s population, 41,522 were female and 41,628 were male, which means there were 100 males for every 100 females. In Ireland overall there were 2,604,590 females and 2,544,549 males or 98 males for every 100 females. 

The average age of Offaly’s population in April 2022 was 39 years, compared with 37.2 years in April 2016. Nationally, the average age of the population was 38.8, up from 37.4 in April 2016. 

The number of people aged 65 and over continues to grow.  This age group increased by 22% to 12,958 in Offaly, and by 22% to 776,315 at a national level since 2016.

Offaly remains one of the most Catholic counties in Ireland with 79% of respondents to the Census ticking that category. In Ireland as whole 69% identified as Catholic, a large decrease from the 2016 Census.

In Offaly, the number of dual Irish citizens increased from 1,130 to 1,972 while non-Irish citizens accounted for 9% of the county’s population. Nationally, dual Irish citizenship increased by 63% from 104,784 to 170,597 people and non-Irish citizens made up 12% of the population.

The proportion of separated and divorced people in Offaly remained steady at 6% of the population (aged 15 and over), the same as in 2016.  The national comparison was 6% in both 2022 and 2016.

In 2022, 83% of people in Offaly stated that their health was good or very good compared with 86% in 2016.  This is a similar trend to the national figures, which showed a 4% decrease in the good/very good categories, from 87% to 83%.

The number of people (aged three and over) who stated that they could speak Irish in Offaly was 28,231 compared with 27,807 in 2016.  Within this figure 586 said they spoke Irish daily while 1,536 spoke Irish weekly. Nationally, 1,873,997 people stated they were able to speak Irish, with 71,968 speaking Irish daily and 115,065 speaking it weekly.

There were 35,248 people (aged 15 and over) at work in Offaly, an increase of 4,961 people (+16%) between 2016 and 2022.  Nationally, there were 313,656 additional people (+16%) at work.

In Offaly, 8,324 people (aged 15 and over) worked from home at least one day a week in 2022.  This represented 24% of the workforce. The national figure was 32%.

This was a new question for Census 2022. There were 17,167 children aged 15 and under in Offaly in April 2022. Of these, 5,623 (33%) were in childcare, compared with 33% nationally.

In 2022, in Offaly 72% of households owned their own home, with a further 22% renting. This compared with 66% of households owning their home nationally and 28% renting.

In Offaly, 18% of households wrote a message in the Time Capsule. Nationally, this figure was 19%.

Commenting on the results, Cormac Halpin, Senior Statistician in the Census Division, said: “Census 2022 results provide us with unique and valuable insights into the Ireland that we live in today.”

Mr Halpin added: “The publication of Census 2022 results could not have been achieved without the overwhelmingly positive response from the public and we thank everyone who completed their census form on April 3 2022. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the Census 2022 campaign culminating in this week’s successful publication of the results.”