Most people in Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim still live in, what CSO calls, rural areas



Most people in Sligo, Donegal and Leitrim live in rural areas, according to the latest census figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The census was carried out in April of 2016.

It shows that despite more people living in towns and villages, most of the population in the three counties still live in rural areas, with Leitrim the most rural county in the country.

Sligo’s total population is up 0.2% compared to 2011 with 65,535 people, with more than 60% living in rural areas.

Donegal has a total population of 159,192, and of the three counties, is the only one to see a decrease in the population, being down 1.2% with 72.7% living in rural areas.

Leitrim saw an increase of 0.8% to bring the total population to 32,044; it also has almowst 90% of its population living in rural areas.

The largest town in County Sligo is Sligo Town with Tubbercurry being the fastest growing town in the county which saw an increase of 13.7% in the number of people living there.

Letterkenny is Donegal’s largest town with Donegal Town being the fastest growing, with a 0.42% increase.

In Leitrim, Carrick-On-Shannon is both the largest and fastest growing town in the county with a population increase of 3.3%.

County Sligo also saw the biggest national change in urbanisation since 2011, going from 37% urban to 40%.

In all three counties, when people decided to move, they were more likely to move somewhere within their respective counties as opposed to moving outside of them.



Related