CENSUS 2016: What you need to know about the South Dublin County region

By Mary Dennehy

THERE are 278,767 people now living in the South Dublin County Council region, a 5.1 per cent increase since the last census was taken in 2011.

The first results from Census 2016 were published today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and alongside showing an increase in population across all local constituencies, the results also reveal that we’re getting older, are less religious and speak less Irish.

According to figures released, there are nearly 18,000 additional people living across the constituencies of Dublin South West, Dublin Mid-West and Dublin South Central since the last census was taken in 2011.

The area of South Dublin County Council has also recorded a 5.1 per cent increase in its population since 2011, that’s an additional 13,562 people living in communities such as Tallaght, Clondalkin, Lucan, Templeogue, Rathfarnham and Saggart – pushing the population up to 278,767.

Looking back to Census 2006, the number of people living within South Dublin County Council’s catchment area was 246,935 – which is a population increase of nearly 32,000 in the past decade.

One aspect that is interesting to note in terms of health care and community services is the aging population both locally and nationally, which reflects recent predictions by Tallaght Hospital that the health services here in South Dublin County will be faced with a crippling number of older patients in the next 15 years if investments are not made now to accommodate our aging population.

According to the report, the number of people aged 65 and over in the region of South Dublin County Council increased from 23,053 to 30,925 between 2011 and 2016 – an increase of nearly 7,880 people over the age of 65 years.

This growth was reflected right across the capital, with the number of males in Dublin aged 65 and over increasing by 22 per cent to 296,837 while the number of females in this age bracket increased by 16.7 per cent to 340,730.

The average age of the Dublin population at the time of the census in April 2016 was 36.8 years compared to 35.8 years in April 2011.

It was also revealed that there are more women than men in the capital.

Here in Dublin, the population increased by 5.8 per cent to 1,347,359, with women outnumbering the men by 30,606.

According to the report, in April 2016 there were 688,988 females and 658,372 males in the capital.

One area of the Census generating debate today is the increase noted in the average number of persons per households.

Here in the local authority area of South Dublin County Council, the average number of persons per household is 3.0, a slight increase on 2011’s figure of 2.9.

According to the CSO, there are 92,523 households in the area, which are home to 277,168 people compared to 90,019 households in 2011 that had 263,723 people living in them. 

Echo.ie spoke with the Central Statistics Office earlier and specific figures on local electoral areas will not be released for a number of weeks.

For further coverage see next week’s Echo or visit www.cso.ie to read the publicised reports. 

A Brief overview of Census 2016 (part 1)