Donegal’s population grew by 5% (7,892) to 167,084 between April 2016 and April 2022, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) Census 2022 results.
Over the same period, Ireland’s population increased by 8% from 4,761,865 to 5,149,139.
There has been a population growth in every county since 2016, with the highest generally occurring in eastern counties, including Kildare, Meath, Fingal, and Longford.
Of Donegal’s population, 84,289 were female and 82,795 were male, which means there were 98 males for every 100 females.
Employment figures are on the rise, with 67,977 people (aged 15 and over) at work in Donegal, an increase of 9,624 people (+16%) between 2016 and 2022. Nationally, there were 313,656 additional people (+16%) at work. In Donegal, 15,350 people (aged 15 and over) worked from home at least one day a week in 2022. This represented 23% of the workforce. The national figure was 32%.
The number of people (aged three and over) who said that they could speak Irish in Donegal was 59,130 compared with 56,738 in 2016. Within this figure 7,750 said they spoke Irish daily while 4,533 spoke Irish weekly.
Commenting on the results, Cormac Halpin, Senior Statistician in the Census Division, said: “Today’s Census 2022 results provide us with unique and valuable insights into the Ireland that we live in today.
“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 the 3rd of April 2022.”
