Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A neighbourhood in Dublin, home to 2,872 people.
Much to like here, and you pay for it. It is easy to get around without a car. 25% of commuters walk, cycle or take the bus or train (the typical Irish town: 23%). Overall, Ballybrack earns a B+: better than two thirds of Irish towns, and #39 of 116 in Co. Dublin. Buying in is costly: the median sale, €430,000, comes to 6.1 times what the median household here earns. Its other grades sit near the middle: B for safety and B for hazard risk.
Figures: commuting, CSO Census 2022 · prices, Property Price Register, 2023 to 2025 · incomes, CSO · crime, CSO recorded crime, 2023 to 2025 · radon, EPA.
Rents for this town aren't published on their own, so its Cost Grade uses the county's average rent.
The 3 things Ballybrack does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compares Ballybrack 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 →
The record adds 1 archaeological site.
Homes built before 1919: 0%, against 3% across Irish towns.
Castles, abbeys, gardens, museums and days out in and near Ballybrack. Best known first.
MuseumJames Joyce Museum3 km outside town, to the north · 40K visitors a year
CastleManderley Castle1.1 km outside town, to the east
MuseumNational Maritime Museum of Ireland3 km outside town, to the north
CastlePuck's Castle2.7 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleDalkey Castle & Heritage Centre2.4 km outside town, to the northeast
Castle · Office of Public WorksMonkstown Castle2.9 km outside town, to the northPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ballybrack.
4% rent privately, lower than both Co. Dublin’s towns (20%) and Irish towns (22%). Council and housing-body homes hold 7% of households.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Second-hand homes | €430,000 | 96 |
| The last 12 months | €452,500 | 32 |
| Housing | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households owning their home | 88% | 66% | 61% |
| Households renting privately | 4% | 20% | 22% |
| Households in social housing | 7% | 10% | 13% |
| Median sale price | €430K | €454K | €350K |
Property Price Register · CSO residential prices by Eircode area · RTB rents · CSO, Census 2022 tenure
Single-sex secondaries: 46%, above Co. Dublin’s towns (40%) and Irish towns (39%) alike. 41 schools lie within 3 km of Ballybrack: 26 primary schools, 11 secondary schools and 4 special schools. The nearest secondary, Cabinteely Community School, is 0.9 km away.
| School | Level | Pupils | Ethos |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Harold School Special classesLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 642 | Catholic |
| Loreto Abbey Secondary School GirlsLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Post-primary · Voluntary secondary | 757 | Catholic |
| Gaelscoil Phadraig GaelscoilTeaches through IrishPrimary | Primary | 118 | Catholic |
| Cabinteely Community School DEISIn the DEIS schemePost-primary · Community school | Post-primary · Community school | 512 | Inter-denominational |
| Schools within 3 km | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Teach through Irish | 2% | 7% | 8% |
| In the DEIS scheme | 29% | 40% | 35% |
| Pupils since 2019/20 | +7% | +4% | +4% |
| Single-sex secondaries | 46% | 40% | 39% |
Department of Education school lists, 2025/26 (preliminary) · no results are published by school · Ireland doesn’t publish results for individual schools, so none of these carries a letter.
The unemployment rate comes to 7%. Short trips: 29% under 15 minutes, higher than Co. Dublin’s towns (23%) yet lower than Irish towns (31%). On average, the journey to work lasts 30.3 min.
| Census 2022 | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate | 7% | 7.4% | 9.2% |
| Median household income | €70,300 | €72,780 | €57,760 |
| Average trip | 30.3 min | 31.1 min | 27.6 min |
| Trips under 15 minutes | 29% | 23% | 31% |
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.
Weighed against its ages, bad health in Ballybrack runs at 99 per 100 expected. At the census, 2.4% of residents said their health was bad or very bad, higher than both Co. Dublin’s towns (1.9%) and Irish towns (2%). Family carers: 6% of the people in Ballybrack look after someone without pay.
| Census 2022 | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| With a disability | 26% | 21% | 22% |
| Unpaid carers | 6% | 5.3% | 5.4% |
| Bad or very bad health | 2.4% | 1.9% | 2% |
| Good or very good health | 88% | 89% | 88% |
CSO, Census 2022 general health, disability and carers · CSO life expectancy by region, 2016 · HSE medical cards, 2024 · TownRatings age-standardised ratios
Each year, 3.5 violent crimes are recorded per 1,000 residents, and in all, 34.6 crimes per 1,000 residents were recorded a year, below Co. Dublin’s towns (59.2) and Irish towns (54.3) alike. Burglary and damage come to 4.9 per 1,000 residents a year. Among the 201 Irish towns of 2,500 to 10,000 people, Ballybrack has less crime per resident than nearly three quarters of them.
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 | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burglary & damage | 4.9 | 7.5 | 6.4 |
| All recorded crime | 34.6 | 59.2 | 54.3 |
| Violent crime | 3.5 | 5.3 | 5.7 |
CSO recorded crime by Garda station, 2023–2025, shared to towns by where residents live · Census 2022 populations
815 mm of rain falls in a year, between Co. Dublin’s towns (770 mm) and Irish towns (937 mm). Midwinter nights in Ballybrack bottom out at 3.3°C on average. November is the wettest month here, with 96 mm of rain on average.
| Climate, 1991–2020 | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 19.4°C | 19.9°C | 19.9°C |
| January low | 3.3°C | 2.9°C | 2.9°C |
| Rain a year | 815 mm | 770 mm | 937 mm |
| Average temperature over the year | 10.4°C | 10.3°C | 10.3°C |
Met Éireann, 1991–2020 averages.
There are 3 parks in Ballybrack; together its green space comes to 53 ha. The sea makes up 36% of the area within 5 km, higher than both Co. Dublin’s towns (3.7%) and Irish towns (0%). Every 1,000 residents of Ballybrack share 18.4 ha of green space.
| Outdoors | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea within 5 km | 36% | 3.7% | 0% |
| Paths per km² of town | 8.6 km per km² | 5.4 km per km² | 2.1 km per km² |
| Woodland within 1 km | 8% | 2.2% | 2.7% |
| Green space per 1,000 residents | 18.4 ha | 7.6 ha | 4.1 ha |
OpenStreetMap parks and paths, NPWS protected sites and the National Trails Register.
Ballybrack’s November pattern is steady: afternoons average 11°C, nights 5°C. Around 2 mm of rain is due today, on a breeze of up to 31 km/h, with a low of 10°C. Of the days after that, Tuesday brings the most rain: about 6 mm.
| Season | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | 9°C | 3°C | 212 mm |
| Spring | 13°C | 6°C | 169 mm |
| Summer | 19°C | 12°C | 188 mm |
| Autumn | 14°C | 8°C | 246 mm |
Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0) · normals: Met Éireann, 1991–2020
1.6% speak Irish daily outside school, above Co. Dublin’s towns (1.2%) and Irish towns (1.1%) alike. Over-65s are just over a quarter of the population. One measure of family life: 16% of residents are under 15.
Women make up 52.2% of Ballybrack
1,500 women and 1,372 men live here; across Ireland, women are 50.6%.
| Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 16% | 17% | 20% |
| 15–24 | 13% | 12% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 20% | 30% | 29% |
| 45–64 | 25% | 24% | 24% |
| 65+ | 26% | 14% | 14% |
| Primary or none | 12% | 8.4% | 9.7% |
| Lower secondary | 15% | 11% | 14% |
| Leaving Cert | 32% | 30% | 35% |
| Diploma or cert | 6.6% | 5.2% | 5.8% |
| Degree or higher | 34% | 44% | 36% |
CSO, Census 2022 · Co. Dublin and Ireland: the median of their towns of 2,500+
There is just one council for Ballybrack, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council: Ireland has only one tier of local government. Just over two in five voters turned out at the last local elections, about level with Co. Dublin’s towns (42%) and below Irish towns (46%). Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council has no ruling majority: Fine Gael hold 16 of its 40 seats, short of the 21 needed.
| Turnout | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local elections, June 2024 | 42% | 42% | 46% |
| General election, November 2024 | 59% | 57% | 59% |
Department of Housing count sheets, 2024
0.1% of its homes were built before 1919, below both Co. Dublin’s towns (1.2%) and Irish towns (3.4%). There are 1 entries on the national archaeological record here. The national inventory of architectural heritage lists 5 buildings in Ballybrack, each rated of regional importance. One archaeological site is on the record here.
| Heritage | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory buildings per 10,000 residents | 17 | 9 | 48 |
| Homes built before 1919 | 0.1% | 1.2% | 3.4% |
| Archaeological sites on the record | 1 | 7 | 11 |
NIAH, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage · Sites and Monuments Record · CSO, Census 2022 homes by year built
The nearest bathing water to Ballybrack is Killiney, 1.5 km away, rated excellent in 2025. Landslides: none of Ballybrack lies in a high-susceptibility zone. Its homes mostly stand clear of low ground by water.
| Share of homes | Ballybrack | Co. Dublin | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low-lying near a river | 0% | 0% | 0.5% |
| In high-radon areas | 0% | 0% | 0% |
EPA radon map, GSI landslide susceptibility and our low-lying homes estimate from OPW LiDAR.
The national inventory of architectural heritage lists 5 buildings in Ballybrack, each rated of regional importance. One archaeological site is on the record here.
2 notable people were born in Ballybrack; with them, the best known born in the towns around it.
Charles Joseph Patten: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain · Samuel Beckett: Roger Pic, Public domain · Maeve Binchy: The original uploader was Jon Kay at English Wikipedia ., CC BY-SA 3.0 · Sinéad Cusack: The British Library, CC BY 3.0
The nearest places of 1,000 or more. Boundaries: Tailte Éireann, CSO Urban Areas 2022 and Electoral Divisions.
| Town | People | km | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ballybrack | 2,872 | — | B+ | C− | B | B+ |
| Killiney | 9,776 | 1 | C | D− | B− | B+ |
| Cabinteely | 15,864 | 1.2 | B+ | D− | B+ | A |
| Sallynoggin | 13,245 | 2.4 | B+ | D | B− | B+ |
| Dalkey | 8,275 | 2.4 | B | D− | B− | A |
| Foxrock | 12,163 | 2.5 | A− | D− | B+ | A+ |
| Shankill | 11,009 | 3 | C+ | D | B− | B |
People: CSO, Census 2022. Distances: centre to centre.
The median age in Ballybrack is 45.5, against 37.6 in the median of Irish towns.
Ballybrack had 2,872 people at the 2022 census, down from 2,962 in 2016: 3% fewer, while the median of Irish towns grew 7.6%.
14% mostly work from home, and 29% of journeys take under 15 minutes.
Neighbourhood in Dublin
Ballybrack has 2,872 people, in the area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council. TownRatings splits Dublin into neighbourhoods made from the CSO’s Electoral Divisions, named from Tailte Éireann’s gazetteer, so each has figures of its own.
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).