Census 2022: Dubliners not heading west but Cork residents most loyal to home county

Dubliners are showing no signs of bailing from the Pale for new lives out west, with Census 2022 showing a strong attachment to living on the east coast.

Despite predictions that the Covid-19 pandemic and the advent of remote working would result in people moving to cheaper, rural areas, the latest release of census data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) indicate the greater Dublin area remains, and is increasingly, the most popular place to live.

The top five largest towns in the State in 2022 were all in Leinster: Drogheda, Dundalk, Swords, Navan and Bray. County Louth had the two largest towns in the State, Drogheda with 44,135 people and Dundalk with 43,112 people, followed by Swords in north Dublin with 40,776 people, and Navan, Co Meath with a population of 33,886. The next largest Bray, Co Wicklow with 33,512, is just south of Dublin.

Vast majority

Dublin had the highest proportion of people who moved house or apartment in the year leading up to the census — during the height of the pandemic, but the vast majority did not leave the county. Of the 93,473 Dublin residents who did move in the year prior to the census, 77 per cent moved within Dublin. Most leaving the capital stayed in Leinster, with 4,078 going to Kildare, up from 2,974 in the year leading up to the 2016 census, with a further 3,285 relocating to Meath up from 2,602 at the time of the 2016 census.

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Wicklow had the next highest number of ex-Dubliners, with 2,370 making the move south, up from 2,201 in the year leading up to the 2016 census.

Where Dublin movers did venture further afield they did so in smaller numbers than the 2016 census records. The most common non-Leinster destination was Cork where 7 per cent relocated in the year leading to Census 2022 at 1,497 but this was down from 1,533 at the time of the previous census. While the most rural counties were the least popular for a move, with less than 1 per cent of Dublin-based people relocating to Leitrim and Monaghan.

Cork, however, has the most loyal population. Almost three-quarters of all Cork residents were born in the county, significantly higher than the national average, according to the “population distribution and movements” data from the 2022 census.

What about Meath?

Nearly 60 per cent of the 5.1 million people usually resident in the State were living in the county of their birth, but Cork had the highest percentage of residents born in the county at 72 per cent. Meath had the lowest percentage of residents that were born in the county, at 32 per cent.

Cork people were also the least likely to leave the county when they moved house. Of those who relocated in the year up to the census just 18 per cent of Corkonians left the county. However, this was closely followed by Dubliners at just 23 per cent of movers leaving the capital.

Movers in Roscommon and Leitrim were most likely to move to a different county, with 46 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively, doing so.