Photo: Kenneth Allen · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Killybegs trail those of 75% of Irish towns
Trips to work, school or college from Killybegs take 16.7 minutes on average, and 5.7% take an hour or more. The Jobs & income grade for Killybegs is B. Unemployment in Killybegs stood at 11% at the 2022 census (the middle of Irish towns: 9.2%).
The work numbers behind Killybegs
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Killybegs had €46,000 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 ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 16.7 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 5.7% take an hour or more. The trip to work ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022, CSO household income 2022 and the Live Register.
Jobs & income in Killybegs: graded B
With four measures combined, it comes out better than 59% of Irish towns.
Its strongest measure is trip times; its weakest, household income.
Graded against Irish towns of 1,000 people or more; a shorter trip and less unemployment count in its favor.
Ranks start at 2,500 residents, so this grade has no rank.
How the grade works
Four measures, weighed equally against every Irish town of 1,000 people or more: median gross household income (CSO, 2022), people at work as a share of residents aged 15 to 64, the unemployment rate and the average trip to work, school or college (all three Census 2022). Each becomes a percentile; their average sets the letter.
Median income per household in Killybegs: €46,000
That puts Killybegs 8% above the median for County Donegal as a whole, €42,497. One of the county’s 6 towns of 2,500 people or more has a higher median. Net of tax, it is €41,710. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 31% above Killybegs’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
Getting to work or school from Killybegs takes less time than in the middle of Irish towns
Across County Donegal, the middle town’s trips average 20.9 minutes. Among County Donegal’s 6 towns counted, none averages a shorter trip. Trips of under 15 minutes are 72% of the total, against 56% in the middle of County Donegal.
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.
What residents of Killybegs work in
The second-largest is Commerce and trade, at 18% (against 26% across Irish towns), and public administration is the smallest of the seven, at 2.6%.
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.
In Killybegs, 69% of people aged 15 to 64 have a job
Of the 6 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Donegal, 5 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Long-term unemployment, a year or more out of work, covered 2.5% of people aged 15 and over. Among the unemployed, 42% had been out of work that long. Counting everyone aged 15 and over, retirees and students included, 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.
Walking, cycling, the bus or the train: 20% of Killybegs’ commuters
The middle of Irish towns has 6% going by bus; here it is 0.9%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
Signing on in County Donegal since 2019
6,785 people were signing on in County Donegal in September 2026. Over the year to September 2026, the count fell by 7%. For 73 months in a row now, it has been under its 2019 average. Killybegs office: signing on peaked in January 2023 at 692, 23% 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.
People signing on each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
24% of adults in Killybegs are retired
Compared with Irish towns, 8.3% are full-time students and 48% are in work (against 57%).
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), principal economic status of people aged 15 and over; occupations of those at work, in three broad groups.
Everyday places on foot in Killybegs: B−
Better than 46% of Irish towns on two measures together.
Fewest residents live within 800 m of a school: 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.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Killybegs, 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 Killybegs
What is the unemployment rate in Killybegs?
11% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 2.5% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
Is Killybegs a good place to find work?
Killybegs earns a B for jobs and income, better than 59% of Irish towns on household income, the share of 15-to-64s in work, unemployment and trip times together.
How do people in Killybegs get to work?
73% of commuters go by car or van, 18% walk, 0.6% cycle and 0.9% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 6.7% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Killybegs?
Trips to work, school or college take 16.7 minutes on average; 5.7% take an hour or more and 72% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Killybegs?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Killybegs’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Killybegs 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 Killybegs travel and how long their trips take.
Sources: CSO Census 2022 SAPS · CSO Geographical Profiles of Income 2022 · CSO Live Register (LRM07) · OpenStreetMap (ODbL) · grades: TownRatings. 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).