Irish Demographic Maps

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Recently I managed to stumble upon something I've been looking for ages... Irish census constituency-level data, albeit only from the 2006 census (thus with the old constituency boundaries which have changed twice since).

Either way, I'm going to use this thread to put up my findings while trying to remind myself how to use Paint.

Anyway let's begin with some with one of the more classic indicators of Irishness; Catholicism or at least declared Catholicism (the difference is very important)



One of the things striking about this is its simple homogeneity. The republic of Ireland is still a country in which people identity themselves as belonging to the faith of Rome, no matter how nominal their practice. Here it is important to recognize that the actual practice of faith can vary widely across the country from places where a majority attend mass (a lot of the west) to some Inner city working class districts of Dublin where attendance can be as low as 5% (and would be even lower if it weren't for Eastern European immigration).

Most Catholic: Limerick West (93.85%)
Least Catholic: Dublin South East (67.65%)

There were only three constituencies where the percentage dipped below 80% - All in Dublin and in order; Dublin West, Dublin Central and Dublin South East. Some of this figure can be explained by migration - non-Catholic migration from Asia and Nigeria is strongly concentrated in Dublin Inner city - as well as rising social liberalism. Within Dublin itself it is worth noting that the most Catholic areas correspond to the population of 'native' working class around the old Northern Inner suburbs and in Tallaght (aka Dublin South West). However this probably is due to the traditionally higher levels of Protestants among higher social groups and not that the wealthy Catholics as a group are beginning to identity themselves as something else. I imagine that the result of the 2011 census would be little different albeit with a small decrease across the board showing no regional leaning either way (though I don't know for sure).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

In its own confusing way the census divided people in what they call "Socio-economic groups of reference" which are:

- Employers and Managers
- Higher Professional
- Lower Professional
- Non-Manual
- Manual Skilled
- Semi-Skilled
- Unskilled
- Own Account workers (i.e. Self-employed)
- Farmers
- Agricultural Workers
- All Others gainfully employed and occupied

Unfortunately I can't seem to find what exactly their definitions are. Furthermore, the final section 'others' is nearly always one of the largest and I don't know what exactly it contains. So take these maps as warnings.

First of all, here is Employers and Managers:



I used these bands simply because I wanted to demonstrate the disparity in Dublin and the relative equality across the rest of the country (all the <13 constituencies outside of the Capital are only just under). Observe:

Highest %: Dublin South (27.18%) Surprise!
Lowest %: Dublin North West (10.7%) Again, massive shock.

Dublin South along with neighbouring Dun Laoghaire (26.71%) are well ahead with something of a home counties effect seen in the countries around Dublin with relative equality (c15%) across the rest of the country. The lowest numbers are seen in Dublin Inner city and Northern and Western suburbs whose modern day layout is a legacy of post-war slum clearances (which often ended up delivering people to bigger, less well-maintained if more materially comfortable - that was not difficult - slums) or in other words, Dublin Central, Dublin South Central and Dublin North West. Although the crash certainly would have lowered things, I doubt any changes in overall pattern took place in time for the 2011 census.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yeah, that Dublin has a different economic structure to the rest of the country is quite clear from the map.

[old timey villain]

Ireland is awesome.

You can really see the divide between north and south Dublin. It looks like the working class areas of the city are also more religious.

[Kitteh]

These are cool. Thanks.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Forgot to add:

Total Employers/Managers: 16.02%

Now, here is higher professionals:



This will not be the last map in which the South-East of Dublin significantly stands out from the rest of the country. For the record three highest were, if it is not already obvious:

Dublin South East (17.26%)
Dun Laoghaire (14.33%)
Dublin South (13.37%)

In fact, the total % for DSE almost matches that for "Employers and Managers" (there is nowhere else where there this is even remotely close). This, however, should not be totally surprising as it is in this constituency where most government buildings are and where the civil service lives - in addition to being the location of pretty much all national media and Trinity College (with University College Dublin being just over the border in Dublin South).

The lowest was Donegal South-West (2.28%)

(Just realized that I forgot to put "Source: 2006 Census" on the map. Oh well).

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Ireland is awesome.

You can really see the divide between north and south Dublin. It looks like the working class areas of the city are also more religious.

Not necessarily as there are more Protestants in the middle class regions although South Dublin is certainly more liberal than the North.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

I'm not doing this in any organized order. Here is % of persons in privately occupied homes "renting from local authority"

Remember this is from 2006, to say things have changed somewhat in terms of housing in Ireland since then is somewhat understating things (although o/c many patterns remain):



Highest: Dublin North West (18.65%)
Lowest: Meath East (3.03%) (This is Dublin commuter belt and a lot of its residents would have been fairly recent arrivals)

[ObserverIE]

A couple of sites that allow you to view the data at a more detailed level:

http://airomaps.nuim.ie/flexviewer/?config=Census2011.xml

http://maps.pobal.ie/#/Map

[ObserverIE]

Within Dublin itself it is worth noting that the most Catholic areas correspond to the population of 'native' working class around the old Northern Inner suburbs and in Tallaght (aka Dublin South West). However this probably is due to the traditionally higher levels of Protestants among higher social groups and not that the wealthy Catholics as a group are beginning to identity themselves as something else. I imagine that the result of the 2011 census would be little different albeit with a small decrease across the board showing no regional leaning either way (though I don't know for sure).

The drop in percentages of declared Catholics owes as much if not more to (non-Polish, non-Lithuanian) immigration as secularisation; the 2011 census figures showed that 90% of Irish citizens declared as Catholics, as opposed to barely over 50% for non-citizens.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Within Dublin itself it is worth noting that the most Catholic areas correspond to the population of 'native' working class around the old Northern Inner suburbs and in Tallaght (aka Dublin South West). However this probably is due to the traditionally higher levels of Protestants among higher social groups and not that the wealthy Catholics as a group are beginning to identity themselves as something else. I imagine that the result of the 2011 census would be little different albeit with a small decrease across the board showing no regional leaning either way (though I don't know for sure).

The drop in percentages of declared Catholics owes as much if not more to (non-Polish, non-Lithuanian) immigration as secularisation; the 2011 census figures showed that 90% of Irish citizens declared as Catholics, as opposed to barely over 50% for non-citizens.

Ummm... that was my point.

A couple of sites that allow you to view the data at a more detailed level:

http://airomaps.nuim.ie/flexviewer/?config=Census2011.xml

http://maps.pobal.ie/#/Map

Wow. Excellent. Thanks.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Just to correlate with the above, here is percentage born outside the EU:



Here there are three constituencies which are well-ahead of the others: Dublin West (12.95%), Dublin South East (12.4%) and Dublin Central (11.76%) and while correlation is neither causation nor explanation it should be compared with the Catholic map above.

One thing the census does not seem do by constituency at least is divide those born in the USA and the Commonwealth settler colonies and people born anywhere else outside the EU. Which is unfortunate and probably would have shown the Dublin-Non-Dublin division more. Lowest was Limerick West (1.4%). Donegal South West and Tipperary North were the only other two below 2%.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Now here's farmers



Pattern seems pretty umm.. explanatory.

Anything anyone would be interested in here?

[Kitteh]

Did anyone in Dublin declare their occupation as "farmer"? I'd like to meet that person

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Did anyone in Dublin declare their occupation as "farmer"? I'd like to meet that person

Yes. In every constituency there were people who declared themselves as farmers. In Dublin Central there were 47 people who were declared as farmers (or 0.04%). It's not impossible or like the US, it only takes two hours from the centre to get into deep countryside and it's possible that these people have more than one job which requires them to be in the city but any real details further than that I would not know.

[Kitteh]

Or this maybe?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_agriculture

You're explanation is probably more likely.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

And, in any case, it's a census with all that that implies.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

And so here is No Religion (The Census has in its infinite wisdom and my personal access divided the religion category into four: Catholic (see above), Other Stated (go figure), No Religion and Not stated)

For the sake of convenience I've done some rounding with Cork NC at 3.97% and Dublin NC at 5.99% I jumped them up a category.



Dublin Central and Dublin South East well out in front again...

[minionofmidas]

Other Stated! Other Stated!

[Franknburger]

Great maps- keep it going!

Aside from Dublin, the Cork area seems to show quite some dynamic, probably due to immigration (a friend's son - German, non-catholic- used to work there for a number of years with the Marriott international call center, having mostly polish girl friends ..). Aside from Dublin, you might want to dig a bit deeper into that region as well ...

[ObserverIE]

Did anyone in Dublin declare their occupation as "farmer"? I'd like to meet that person

Yes. In every constituency there were people who declared themselves as farmers. In Dublin Central there were 47 people who were declared as farmers (or 0.04%). It's not impossible or like the US, it only takes two hours from the centre to get into deep countryside and it's possible that these people have more than one job which requires them to be in the city but any real details further than that I would not know.

You do have the Phoenix Park and the Botanic Gardens nearby, I suppose, and there are a couple of farms inside the city boundaries (http://census.cso.ie/agrimap/).

What I'm really impressed by is the city block formed by Camden Street/Grantham Street/Synge Street/South Circular Road (small area 268142005, and part of Hipster Central to the casual observer) where 10% of the population claim to be farmers. Guys, a marijuana plant in a pot does not a market garden make.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

Ask and you shall receive.



I decided to use Orange as my colour for this map. At one time it would have been perfect, now well it is still very appropriate but not entirely: Dublin West (14.5%) here is the real anomaly as the constituency with the highest percentage and it is not a historic protestant area (which most of the others in dark shades are). In short, I strongly suspect that this is a Historic Protestant populations + Recent non-Eastern European migrants map. Lowest was Limerick West (3.27%)

In only three constituencies was the % for non-religion higher than that for Other religion stated: Dublin Central, Dublin North Central and Cork North Central although in all cases it was by narrow margins.

[minionofmidas]

Did anyone in Dublin declare their occupation as "farmer"? I'd like to meet that person

Yes. In every constituency there were people who declared themselves as farmers. In Dublin Central there were 47 people who were declared as farmers (or 0.04%). It's not impossible or like the US, it only takes two hours from the centre to get into deep countryside and it's possible that these people have more than one job which requires them to be in the city but any real details further than that I would not know.

You do have the Phoenix Park and the Botanic Gardens nearby, I suppose, and there are a couple of farms inside the city boundaries (http://census.cso.ie/agrimap/).

What I'm really impressed by is the city block formed by Camden Street/Grantham Street/Synge Street/South Circular Road (small area 268142005, and part of Hipster Central to the casual observer) where 10% of the population claim to be farmers. Guys, a marijuana plant in a pot does not a market garden make.

An entire basement converted to a greenhouse, on the other hand.... especially if that's indeed your biggest source of income?

[minionofmidas]

I thought there were more Prots in Cavan/Monaghan... and Ican't recall ever hearing of Protestants in Donegal.
I knew about Carbery and Wicklow (and middle-class Dublin, duh effing duh.)

[Franknburger]

In the "Other Stated Religion" map, four constitutencies outside the Greater Dublin area stand out in brownish colour. Thre of them are adjacent to Northern Ireland, so I assume its Protestants there.

But what about the coastal strip south-west of Cork? Hippie-land with lots of Celtic Druids and converted Buddhists? Or English, German and Dutch immigrannts working for the local tourism business?