Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0How Carrigans works: jobs, income and commuting
Travel time from Carrigans to work, school or college: 26.9 minutes on average, an hour or longer for 4.3%. Unemployment in Carrigans stood at 23% at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. Carrigans isn’t graded for jobs and income: it has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts.
What stands out about work in Carrigans
Fewer people in work than most towns
57% of people aged 15 to 64 in Carrigans had a job at the 2022 census; the middle of Irish towns is 68%. In work ↓
More unemployment than most towns
23% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns; 7.7% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Unemployment ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Carrigans had €29,250 a year before tax in 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760. CSO publishes no income figure for this place, so this one is our estimate from its electoral divisions. Household income ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022, CSO household income 2022 and the Live Register.
The figures behind jobs and income in Carrigans
Carrigans has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts. The figures on this page are still its own.
Jobs for 57% of people aged 15 to 64 in Carrigans
None of the 6 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Donegal has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
7.7% of everyone aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Put another way, 54% of the unemployed had been out of work for a year or more. Of all residents aged 15 and over, retirees and students among them, 48% were at work.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS): people at work of any age, over residents aged 15 to 64. The census doesn’t cross work with age, so the few people working past 65 count in the top only.
Median household income: €29,250 a year
Before tax, 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760.
Carrigans’s median is 31% below County Donegal’s (€42,497). Every town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. After tax, the median is €28,570. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 106% above Carrigans’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
Where Carrigans’ residents work, by industry
Professional services, health and education is the second-largest at 22%, against 25% across Irish towns; the smallest of the seven is farming, forestry and fishing, at 2.1%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), industry of people at work who live here. Ireland doesn’t publish how many jobs are based in each town, so this shows what residents do, not the jobs here.
How Carrigans gets to work: 7.8% without a car
Walking takes 5% of commuters and cycling 0.7%, where the middle of Irish towns has 10% and 2.4%. Most go by car or van: 81% of commuters. 10% work mainly from home, against 11% in the middle of Irish towns. The middle of Irish towns has 6% going by bus; here it is 2.1%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
About as much time on the road to work or school from Carrigans as in the middle of Irish towns
Most often, a trip takes 15 to 44 minutes: 67%, against 36% in the middle of County Donegal. The trip from the middle of County Donegal averages 20.9 minutes. Of the 6 towns of County Donegal counted, 6 have a shorter average trip. Short trips of under 15 minutes make up 24%, where the middle of County Donegal has 56%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), time taken to travel to work, school or college; the four bands are the shares of trips whose length was stated.
The monthly count of people signing on in County Donegal
6,785 people were signing on in County Donegal in September 2026. Set against a year before, the count in September 2026 fell by 7%. It has stayed below its 2019 average for the last 73 months. County Donegal saw its highest month in May 2020: 10,882 people signing on, 9% above the 2019 average.
Live Register (CSO LRM07), people signing on at social welfare offices each month. It isn’t an unemployment rate: part-time and seasonal workers sign on too, and offices serve areas that aren’t published. This place has no office of its own name, so the chart is its county’s or city’s.
People signing on each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
How Carrigans spends its days: 48% of adults in work
The mix is close to Irish towns’ as a whole.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), principal economic status of people aged 15 and over; occupations of those at work, in three broad groups.
Within 800 m of home in Carrigans
Not graded: the Walkability grade starts at 1,000 residents.
Of the everyday places, a food shop is the one the fewest residents have within 800 m (0%).
OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), places within 800 m in a straight line of each Census small area; active commuting from Census 2022. OpenStreetMap misses many GP surgeries and bakeries in Ireland, so those two are shown, not graded.
The places around Carrigans, side by side
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carrigans | 57% | 23% | €29K | 26.9 min | — | — |
| Newtowncunningham 7.1 km | 60% | 15% | €44K | 23.3 min | D | D |
| Lifford 13.6 km | 52% | 23% | €32K | 23.5 min | D− | D |
| Raphoe 14.2 km | 53% | 20% | €35K | 20.8 min | D | C− |
| Muff 16.4 km | 72% | 6.7% | €30K | 25.6 min | B | D |
| Ramelton 17.4 km | 66% | 12% | €46K | 22.3 min | C+ | D |
| Convoy 18 km | 63% | 15% | €39K | 21.2 min | C− | D− |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and trip times, with both grades.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Carrigans, where it comes from, and what Ireland doesn’t publish.
- In work. People at work over residents aged 15 to 64 (Census 2022). Graded in place of the share of everyone 15 and over, so a town of retirees isn’t marked down for them.
- Unemployment. Unemployed people (first-job seekers included) over the labour force, from Census 2022.
- Household income. CSO’s median gross household income for 2022. Where CSO publishes no figure for the town, ours is the household-weighted mean of its electoral divisions’ medians, and the page says so.
- Trip times. Census 2022 groups trips to work, school and college by length; the average uses each group’s middle (7.5 to 105 minutes).
- Signing on. The Live Register counts people signing on at a social welfare office, by office and county. It includes part-time and seasonal workers, so it follows a trend; it isn’t an unemployment rate.
- Walkability. Four everyday places within 800 m (pharmacy, food shop, school, post office) and the share who walk, cycle or take the bus or train to work. GP surgeries and bakeries are shown, not graded: OpenStreetMap misses many.
- Which towns we compare. Places of 2,500 people or more that aren’t a whole city: towns and city neighbourhoods. Grades start at 1,000 people; ranks at 2,500.
- What isn’t here. Ireland publishes no count of the jobs based in each town and no open table of where commuters go (CSO releases its place-of-work file, POWSCAR, on application only), so this page has no daily tide, commute map or jobs-based-here block. Claimant rates aren’t published for towns either: the Live Register is by office and county.
Questions about work in Carrigans
What is the unemployment rate in Carrigans?
23% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 7.7% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
How do people in Carrigans get to work?
81% of commuters go by car or van, 5% walk, 0.7% cycle and 2.1% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 10% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Carrigans?
Trips to work, school or college take 26.9 minutes on average; 4.3% take an hour or more and 24% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Carrigans?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Carrigans’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Carrigans work?
Ireland has no open table of where commuters go: CSO releases its place-of-work file (POWSCAR) on application only. The census does give how people from Carrigans travel and how long their trips take.
Sources: CSO Census 2022 SAPS · CSO Geographical Profiles of Income 2022 · CSO Live Register (LRM07) · OpenStreetMap (ODbL). Under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).
Contains Central Statistics Office (CSO) data, Census 2022, and Tailte Éireann boundaries (CSO Urban Areas, Small Areas, local electoral areas, constituencies), under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0).