Wharfside flats rank highest for postgrads

ALMOST HALF of residents at a Grand Canal Wharf apartment block in Dublin had postgraduate qualifications, the highest proportion in the State according to 2011 census data released yesterday.

The small area population statistics from 18,500 small areas of some 80 to 100 households were released for the first time by the Central Statistics Office yesterday.

The 2011 census figures showed a tale of two cities in Dublin city centre. The area of highest unemployment in the State was around Gardiner Street and Sherrard Street where six in 10 people did not have a job. Half of people in this area had never been employed.

This area also had the lowest education levels. Eight in 10 people had only reached a primary or lower secondary level of education. However, 94 per cent of people in part of the Gasworks apartment in Dublin were working, the highest in the State. A block of the Gasworks apartment complex also had one of the highest levels of education, with 45 per cent of people having postgraduate qualifications.

Three areas of Ballina, Co Mayo showed among the lowest education levels: 78-79 per cent of people had only reached a primary or lower secondary level of education. Ballina was one of the unemployment blackspots identified in an earlier census report.

The overall census statistics, released earlier this year, showed that Polish people were for the first time the largest grouping of non-Irish nationals. This latest breakdown of figures shows five small areas where people born in Poland made up half or more of the population. In the Mallow Square area in Limerick city centre six in 10 people were Polish. The other areas with large Polish populations were on the Waterford Road in New Ross, at Fionnuisce, Doughiska, Co Galway city and in Tallaght at Belgard Square and Westend Gate. There were three areas where only Irish born people lived; a rural area south of Bellacorick, Co Mayo, an area of Shannon Harbour, Co Offaly, and a rural area west of Clareen, Co Offaly.

A growth in the number of people of “no religion” was another major change in the overall April 2011 census.

Parts of Dublin and Cork city centres had the greatest proportion of people with “no religion”.

Some four in 10 people in the Ormond Quay and Bachelors Walk areas of Dublin city declared themselves of no religion. Three areas of Cork city centre had four in 10 people of no religion.

The only two areas in the State where every person was Catholic were rural: south of Glencar in Co Kerry and east of Milltown Malbay in Co Cork. An area of Cork also had the largest proportion of divorced people: at 14 per cent around Roches Building in Cork city. The largest percentage of married people was in Dysart south of Ardmore, Co Waterford, where seven in 10 people are married. However, Dublin had the areas with the most children aged under five. Three in 10 people living around Ballintyre Hall in Ballinteer, Gardner Place, in Dublin city centre and Beechdale Park in Firhouse were aged under five.

Co Cork had the areas with the most people who commuted by bicycle and by car. One in four people in Timoleague, Co Cork, cycled to work or college. At Welwyn Road in Ardkerrig outside Cork city 86 per cent of people drove themselves to work. Almost a fifth of people in a part of Portarlington, Co Laois, (18 per cent) drove to work for over 1½ hours, the highest in this commuting category. The census was carried out on April 10th, 2011, with census staff collecting forms from just under two million dwellings.

The breakdown for each area is available online at: census.cso.ie/sapmap/