Tipperary's population rises and employment increases 15% in county, 2022 Census results show

Tipperary’s population rose by 5% between 2016 and 2022 to 167,895 according to Census 2022, which also found that the number of people in employment in the county increased by 15% or close to 10,000 during that six year period

The Census also found the number of people 65 and over in the county’s population is continuing to grow, increasing by a significant 20% in that six year period while the average age of the county's population also rose to 40.3 years.

The first significant results of the Census carried out on Sunday, April 3 2022 were released last week.

The results show that the number of people living in county Tipperary rose by 8,342 between April 2016 and April 2022.
Tipperary's 5% population rise was 3% below the 8 % rise in the country’s population, which has brought it to 5,149,139. It’s the first time the country’s population has surpassed 5 million in 171 years.

Here are some of the other key Census results for Tipperary:

Population – Males and Females
Tipperary’s population is divided into 84,256 females and 83,639 males. This means there were 99 males for every 100 females. In Ireland overall there were 2,604,590 females and 2,544,549 males or 98 males for every 100 females. 
Population by Age

The average age of Tipperary’s population in April 2022 was 40.3 years, compared with 38.6 years in April 2016.
Nationally, the average age of the population was 38.8, up from 37.4 in April 2016. 
The number of people aged 65 and over continues to grow.  This age group increased by 20% to 29,356 in Tipperary, and by 22% to 776,315 at a national level since 2016.

Dual Irish Citizens
In Tipperary, the number of dual Irish citizens (people who are citizens of both Ireland and another country) increased from 2,329 to 3,904 while non-Irish citizens accounted for 9% of the county’s population.

Nationally, dual Irish citizenship increased by 63% from 104,784 to 170,597 people and non-Irish citizens made up 12% of the population.

Divorce/Separation
The proportion of separated and divorced people in Tipperary remained steady at 7% of the population (aged 15 and over), compared to 6% in 2016.  The national comparison was 6% in both 2022 and 2016.

Health

In 2022, 83% of people in Tipperary stated that their health was good or very good compared with 87% in 2016.
  This is a similar trend to the national figures, which also showed a 4% decrease in the good/very good categories, from 87% to 83%.

Irish Speakers

The number of people (aged three and over) who stated that they could speak Irish in Tipperary was 66,003 compared with 65,391 in 2016.  Within this figure 1,258 said they spoke Irish daily while 3,540 spoke Irish weekly.

Nationally, 1,873,997 people stated they were able to speak Irish, with 71,968 speaking Irish daily and 115,065 speaking it weekly.

Employment

There were 73,207 people (aged 15 and over) at work in Tipperary, an increase of 9,735 people (+15%) between 2016 and 2022.  Nationally, there were 313,656 additional people (+16%) at work.

Working From Home

In Tipperary, 17,665 people (aged 15 and over) worked from home at least one day a week in 2022.  This represented 24% of the workforce. The national figure was 32%.

Childcare

This was a new question for Census 2022. There were 33,286 children aged 15 and under in Tipperary in April 2022. Of these, 12,173 (37%) were in childcare, compared with 33% nationally.

Tenure

In 2022, 69% of Tipperary households owned their own home, with a further 24% renting. This compared with 66% of households owning their home nationally and 28% renting.

Religion

The Census also found that Tipperary was one of the county with the highest proportion of Catholics in its population.
Nationally, the proportion of the population who identified Roman Catholic as their religion fell from 3,696,644 people in 2016 to 3,515,861 in 2022, which is a drop from 79% of the population to 80%.

Mayo had the highest proportion of Catholics at 80%, closely followed by Tipperary, Offaly, Roscommon and Galway county, all reporting 79% of their populations were Catholic.

Time Capsules

In Tipperary, 18% of households wrote a message in the Time Capsule. Nationally, this figure was 19%. The CSO is releasing information about the number of Time Capsules that were completed in 2022. No other information was captured from the Time Capsule section during census processing.

The Time Capsules will be stored securely for 100 years in line with Article 35 of the Statistics Act, 1993, after which they will be released to the public.

Cormac Halpin, Senior Statistician in the Census Division of the Central Statistics Office said the publication of Census 2022 results could not have been achieved without the overwhelmingly positive response from the public.

“We thank everyone who completed their Census form on April 3, 2022. We would also like to thank everyone involved in the Census 2022 campaign culminating in the successful publication of the results.” He said the results published last Tuesday, May 30 were the first in a series of reports on Census 2022.

“Throughout the rest of this year, the CSO will publish eight themed reports, exploring a range of topics including housing, homelessness, religion, disability, and carers in greater detail.

“Small Area Population Statistics (SAPS) will also be published in September.

“The results will provide us with unique and valuable insights into the Ireland that we live in today and will be widely used in the coming years,” he added