Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage records 18 buildings here. It is a town of 1,258 residents in Co. Donegal.
Killybegs’s strongest is safety: for every 1,000 residents, gardaí record 3.5 violent crimes and 2.8 burglaries or acts of criminal damage a year. Add cost of living to its strengths (A−): at a median €153,500, a home costs 3.3 times the town’s median household income. Where it falls short is hazard risk — an estimated 0.6% of homes are above the radon reference level. Elsewhere it is close to typical: B for health, B for jobs & income and B− for walkability.
Figures: crime, CSO recorded crime, 2023 to 2025 · prices, Property Price Register, 2023 to 2025 · incomes, CSO · radon, EPA · health, work and commuting, CSO Census 2022. With fewer than 2,500 residents, Killybegs gets subject grades but no overall one among Irish towns.
Rents for this town aren't published on their own, so its Cost Grade uses the county's average rent. Health less sure: few enough residents report bad health that the town's figure could be well above or below its true level.
The 3 things Killybegs does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Killybegs with Irish towns of 2,500 or more, ordered by how far it is from the middle. Towns in other countries are graded separately.
How TownRatings grades Irish towns →
7 archaeological sites are on the record here too.
4% of its homes were built before 1919, against 3% in the median of Irish towns.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Killybegs.
Assaults and harassment topped the graded crimes in Killybegs (2023–2025). Among the 156 Irish towns of 1,000 to 2,500 people, Killybegs has less crime per resident than 66% of them. Theft, shown but not graded, ran at 1.9 per 1,000 a year, lower than both Co. Donegal’s towns (4.9) and Irish towns (15.3).
Not in the gradeTheft, public order and offences found by Garda checks (drugs, road traffic, dangerous acts) are shown but left out of the Safety Grade, which counts violence, burglary and damage.
| Per 1,000 a year | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burglary & damage | 2.8 | 5.4 | 6.4 |
| Violent crime | 3.5 | 8.2 | 5.7 |
| All recorded crime | 18.2 | 49.1 | 54.3 |
| Theft | 1.9 | 4.9 | 15.3 |
CSO recorded crime by Garda station, 2023–2025, shared to towns by where residents live · Census 2022 populations
Households that own their home make up 68%. 16% live in social housing, near Co. Donegal’s towns (15%) and higher than Irish towns (13%).
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Second-hand homes | €157,200 | 58 |
| Housing | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | €154K | €181K | €350K |
| Households renting privately | 14% | 24% | 22% |
| Households owning their home | 68% | 55% | 61% |
| Households in social housing | 16% | 15% | 13% |
Property Price Register · CSO residential prices by Eircode area · RTB rents · CSO, Census 2022 tenure
Killybegs’s nearest bathing water is Fintra, 2.8 km away, rated excellent in 2025. 4.9% of homes stand low near the coast, higher than both Co. Donegal’s towns (0%) and Irish towns (0%). By estimate, fewer than one home in a hundred here has radon above the reference level.
| Share of homes | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| On high landslide susceptibility | 3.1% | 0.5% | 0% |
| Low-lying near the coast | 4.9% | 0% | 0% |
| Low-lying near a river | 0.1% | 4.2% | 0.5% |
EPA radon map, GSI landslide susceptibility and our low-lying homes estimate from OPW LiDAR.
Just over a third of people in the HSE West and North West health region hold a medical card. At the census, 3% of people here described their health as bad or very bad. Asked at the census, 85% of residents of Killybegs said they were in good or very good health.
| Census 2022 | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bad or very bad health | 3% | 2.4% | 2% |
| Good or very good health | 85% | 86% | 88% |
| Unpaid carers | 6% | 5.8% | 5.4% |
| With a disability | 23% | 25% | 22% |
CSO, Census 2022 general health, disability and carers · CSO life expectancy by region, 2016 · HSE medical cards, 2024 · TownRatings age-standardised ratios
Families in Killybegs have 5 schools within 3 km to choose from: 4 primary schools and 1 secondary school. St. Catherine's Vocational School is the nearest secondary school, 0.5 km away.
| School | Level | Pupils | Ethos |
|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Neill Mor DEISLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 240 | Catholic |
| St. Catherine's Vocational School DEISLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary · ETB | Post-primary · ETB | 359 | Multi-denominational |
| Killybegs Common N.S. DEISIn the DEIS schemePrimary | Primary | 75 | Catholic |
| Schools within 3 km | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the DEIS scheme | 80% | 38% | 35% |
| Teach through Irish | 0% | 7% | 8% |
| Single-sex secondaries | 0% | 0% | 39% |
| Pupils since 2019/20 | +1% | +7% | +4% |
Department of Education school lists, 2025/26 (preliminary) · no results are published by school · Without school-level results from Ireland, the cards show no letters.
The year’s mean temperature is 9.9°C, between Co. Donegal’s towns (9.7°C) and Irish towns (10.3°C). Killybegs gets 1,771 mm of rain a year. On a January night, the temperature in Killybegs falls to about 3.0°C.
| Climate, 1991–2020 | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 17.9°C | 18.6°C | 19.9°C |
| Rain a year | 1,771 mm | 1,316 mm | 937 mm |
| Average temperature over the year | 9.9°C | 9.7°C | 10.3°C |
| January low | 3.0°C | 2.5°C | 2.9°C |
Met Éireann, 1991–2020 averages.
85% of homes have green space within 400 m. Protected sites cover 0.4% of the land within 5 km, lower than both Co. Donegal’s towns (4.7%) and Irish towns (1.8%). Its one park gives Killybegs 2 ha of green space.
| Outdoors | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea within 5 km | 31% | 8.7% | 0% |
| Near a park | 85% | 54% | 92% |
| Woodland within 1 km | 6.5% | 4.5% | 2.7% |
| Protected nature within 5 km | 0.4% | 4.7% | 1.8% |
OpenStreetMap parks and paths, NPWS protected sites and the National Trails Register.
Afternoon temperatures for the rest of the week run from 8°C at the low end to 11°C on Thursday. Usually, November days warm to 11°C and nights cool to 5°C; Killybegs’ forecast is read against that. A dry day with a stiff breeze lies ahead today: wind building to 27 km/h, then a low of 7°C.
| Season | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | 8°C | 3°C | 535 mm |
| Spring | 12°C | 6°C | 331 mm |
| Summer | 18°C | 11°C | 383 mm |
| Autumn | 13°C | 8°C | 521 mm |
Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0) · normals: Met Éireann, 1991–2020
Aged 15 to 24: just over one in ten residents. Children under 15 make up 16%, lower than both Co. Donegal’s towns (21%) and Irish towns (20%). Degrees are held by 17% of adults.
50.3% of Killybegs’ residents are women
633 women and 625 men live here; across Ireland, women are 50.6%.
| Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 21% | 20% |
| 15–24 | 11% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 21% | 28% | 29% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 23% | 24% |
| 65+ | 26% | 16% | 14% |
| Primary or none | 21% | 14% | 9.7% |
| Lower secondary | 19% | 16% | 14% |
| Leaving Cert | 36% | 34% | 35% |
| Diploma or cert | 7.6% | 6.2% | 5.8% |
| Degree or higher | 17% | 29% | 36% |
CSO, Census 2022 · Co. Donegal and Ireland: the median of their towns of 2,500+
Killybegs answers to one council, Donegal County Council; Ireland has no town tier. There is no majority on Donegal County Council; Fianna Fáil have the most seats, 10 of 37, short of 19. In the Dáil, Killybegs is part of Donegal, which elects 5 TDs.
| Turnout | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local elections, June 2024 | 57% | 53% | 46% |
| General election, November 2024 | 59% | 59% | 59% |
Department of Housing count sheets, 2024
The Sites and Monuments Record lists 7 sites here, below Co. Donegal’s towns (18) and Irish towns (11) alike. Homes from before 1919 make up 4.4% of the total, lower than Co. Donegal’s towns (4.7%) yet higher than Irish towns (3.4%).
| Heritage | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory buildings per 10,000 residents | 143 | 105 | 48 |
| Archaeological sites on the record | 7 | 18 | 11 |
NIAH, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage · Sites and Monuments Record · CSO, Census 2022 homes by year built
Workers spend 16.7 min getting to work, on average. Just over a tenth of the labour force were unemployed, below Co. Donegal’s towns (13%) but above Irish towns (9.2%). Working from home was the norm for 6.7% of workers at the census.
| Census 2022 | Killybegs | Co. Donegal | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trips under 15 minutes | 72% | 56% | 31% |
| Average trip | 16.7 min | 20.9 min | 27.6 min |
| In work, 15 to 64 | 69% | 63% | 68% |
| Median household income | €46,000 | €39,838 | €57,760 |
CSO, Census 2022 travel to work, work and education · CSO Geographical Profiles of Income 2022 · Live Register · Census day was 3 April 2022, with working from home still common; shares are of those who travelled.
Nothing to visit is mapped within 5 km of Killybegs; these are the best known within 40 km.
Castle · Office of Public WorksDonegal Castle22 km east
CastleClassiebawn Castle20 km south
GardenLissadell House & Gardens34 km south
MuseumBallyshannon and District Museum22 km southeast
MuseumDonegal Railway Heritage Centre22 km eastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Killybegs’ built heritage counts 18 inventory entries, each of regional standing. 7 recorded monuments and archaeological sites lie here.
3 notable people were born in Killybegs.
Killybegs had 1,258 people at the 2022 census, up from 1,236 in 2016: 1.8% more, against 7.6% in the median of Irish towns.
The median age in Killybegs is 46.2, against 37.6 in the median of Irish towns.
Urban area in Co. Donegal
1,258 people live in Killybegs, in the area of Donegal County Council. TownRatings uses the CSO’s 2022 Urban Areas as Ireland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a county or a council area, so its figures cover the town itself.
Built from Tailte Éireann’s boundaries and the CSO’s Census 2022 (CC BY 4.0)
Sources: CSO, Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics (CC BY 4.0) · Tailte Éireann, Urban Areas and Electoral Divisions 2022 (CC BY 4.0) · TownRatings grades, run #544 (Irish towns only). 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).