Photo: sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0Older than 90% of Irish towns: half of Shankill is over 42.2
Compared with 78% across Ireland’s towns, 86% of residents describe themselves as White Irish here. Households without a car or van are rarer here than in nearly three quarters of Irish towns. The 2022 Census put Shankill’s population at 11,009, in 3,930 households. In Shankill, 2.7% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home.
What stands out about the people of Shankill
Older than most towns
Half of Shankill’s residents are under 42.2 and half over; the typical median across Irish towns is 37.6. 18% are 65 or over, against 14% across Ireland’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022.
More residents aged 65 and over than 83% of Irish towns: 18%
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
Residents aged 15 to 24 make up 13%, against 12% across Ireland’s towns. For comparison, 14% of residents are 65 or over across Ireland’s towns. No age band is larger than 40–44: 7.8% of residents.
Median age of Irish towns of 2,500+
■ Shankill, 42.2. The typical town is 37.6.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Co. Dublin 51.4%, Ireland 51.2%. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
A student neighbourhood: 11% of residents 15 and over are students
CSO’s social classes (everyone, by their own or their family’s occupation), the occupations of those at work, and where residents lived a year before the Census.
Residents by social class · all residents
Where residents lived a year earlier
Residents who lived somewhere else a year earlier. The bar runs to 25%.
Workers by occupation · residents at work
At 6.6%, the share of residents who moved in within the year is in line with the figure across Ireland’s towns. The usual figure: 10% of residents 15 and over are students across Ireland’s towns.
One-person households make up 21% in Shankill, less than in 66% of Irish towns
Private households by CSO’s family types, beside the county’s towns and Ireland’s.
Against Co. Dublin’s towns and Ireland’s towns
People per household
Ireland’s towns.
Households of parents with children: 45% here and 43% across Ireland’s towns. The share of one-person households across Ireland’s towns is 24%. The average household has 2.8 people.
88% of homes are houses
Home types, cars and the internet, by household. Owning and renting are on Cost of living.
Type of home
Cars or vans · share of households
Internet at home · share of households
At home, 94% have broadband, while 4.3% have no internet access (typical: 7.6%). Locally, 0.1% of homes are holiday homes. On households in flats, Shankill sits lower than 53% of Irish towns: 12%.
The median household brings in €72,780 a year
Household income in 2022 from CSO’s linked administrative data (GPIIA): the middle household’s income before and after tax.
€72,780 a year before tax puts the median household 21% above Ireland (€60,120). For Co. Dublin, the figure is €71,120.
Below 79% of Irish towns: 9.5% of residents are citizens of another country
Place of birth and citizenship as CSO asks them: born abroad includes Irish citizens born abroad.
Born abroad, by birthplace · share of all residents; the bar runs to 30%
Citizenship · share of all residents; the bar runs to 30%
Citizens of another country, by citizenship; CSO counts dual Irish citizens as Irish.
Other languages · share of all residents
CSO’s small-area tables don’t give the year people arrived.
18% of residents were born outside Ireland (Ireland’s towns: 22%). Across the comparison, 15% of residents are citizens of another country across Ireland’s towns. By birthplace, the largest groups from abroad were born outside the EU and UK (6.8%) and in the UK (5.7%).
Shankill sits above 77% of Irish towns for daily speakers of Irish outside education (1.5%)
Residents aged 3 and over who can speak Irish, and how often they speak it outside education (CSO).
Irish speakers · residents aged 3 and over
4,153 residents, 40% of those aged 3 and over, can speak Irish. The wider picture: 1.1% of residents speak Irish daily outside education across Ireland’s towns.
Residents with no religion make up 24% in Shankill, more than in 80% of Irish towns
Ethnic or cultural background and religion, in CSO’s categories, as people described themselves.
Ethnic groups other than White Irish · all residents
White Irish, not charted: 86% of Shankill · Co. Dublin’s towns 78% · Ireland’s towns 78%.
Religion · all residents
After White Irish, the most common groups are Other White (8.8%), Asian or Asian Irish (3.1%) and Other, including mixed (1.8%). On residents who said they are Catholic, Shankill sits lower than 75% of Irish towns: 64%. The wider picture: 17% of residents said they have no religion across Ireland’s towns.
40% of residents 15 and over are married, more than in 91% of Irish towns
Marital status of residents 15 and over, and unpaid carers.
Partnership status · residents 15 and over
The small-area tables count carers, not their hours of care.
6.6% of residents give unpaid care, against 5.4% across Ireland’s towns. As a yardstick, 34% of residents 15 and over are married across Ireland’s towns.
44% of adults whose education has ended hold a degree or higher, a share 68% of Irish towns don’t reach
Highest level of education completed, residents 15 and over whose education has ended.
Highest qualification · residents 15+ whose education has ended
Postgraduate qualifications are held by 18% of adults here, while 8.5% stopped at primary level or earlier (9.7% across Ireland’s towns). Elsewhere, 36% of adults whose education has ended hold a degree or higher across Ireland’s towns.
6th highest median age among 41 towns of 9,563 to 12,743
Median age of the Irish towns nearest in population; hover a dot.
At the ends of the range sit Summerhill (30.5), the youngest, and Foxrock (44.7), the oldest. Nearest to Shankill in age: Kilnamanagh (41.2), Ballygall (41.9), Killiney (42.5) and Grantstown and Ballinakill (42.5).
Nearby, 4 of 6 towns have older populations than Shankill
The nearest places, coloured by median age; each is a census neighbourhood.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Parents with children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shankill | 11,009 | — | 42.2 | 18% | 45% |
| Killiney | 9,776 | 2.1 km | 42.5 | 19% | 48% |
| Ballybrack | 2,872 | 3.0 km | 45.5 | 26% | 47% |
| Cabinteely | 15,864 | 3.4 km | 38.9 | 16% | 45% |
| Bray | 33,512 | 4.1 km | 40.7 | 16% | 44% |
| Dalkey | 8,275 | 4.9 km | 50.3 | 29% | 37% |
| Foxrock | 12,163 | 4.9 km | 44.7 | 22% | 47% |
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Against Co. Dublin’s towns and Ireland’s towns. Each comparison is its own median: over Co. Dublin’s towns of 2,500 or more and over the Irish towns of 2,500 or more (city totals left out). Percentiles are within Ireland only.
- The earlier population is an estimate. Towns had no official 2016 count on today’s boundaries, so the 2016 figure is CSO’s electoral-division count shared out by where people lived in 2022: read a small town in a large rural division loosely.
- What these tables don’t give. The small-area tables give no year of arrival and no hours of care, and a town’s electoral divisions run past its edge, so the page doesn’t split a town into named areas (a city lists its neighbourhoods).
- The census’s own words. Born abroad, citizenship, ethnic or cultural background and religion are CSO’s questions and categories; the page compares them with other towns and never labels a town by them.
- Neighbourhoods are sums of small areas. Neighbourhood figures are TownRatings sums of CSO Small Areas
Questions about Shankill’s residents
What is the population of Shankill?
Shankill had 11,009 residents at the 2022 Census, counted within its neighbourhood.
What is the average age in Shankill?
The median age is 42.2, older than 90% of Irish towns. 21% are under 18 and 18% 65 or older.
How many people speak Irish in Shankill?
40% of residents aged 3 and over can speak Irish (4,153 people), and 1.5% speak it every day outside education, against a typical 1.1% across Ireland’s towns.
How diverse is Shankill?
86% describe themselves as White Irish (Ireland’s towns: 78%); 18% were born abroad and 9.5% are citizens of another country.
What religion are people in Shankill?
64% are Catholic, 24% have no religion and 12% another religion; 2.5% didn’t say.
Is Shankill good for families?
45% of households are parents with children (Ireland’s towns 43%), and 21% of residents are under 18. Schools near Shankill are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Shankill?
Median gross household income in Shankill was €72,780 in 2022, against €71,120 across Co. Dublin and €60,120 for Ireland.
Sources: CSO, Census of Population 2022, Small Area Population Statistics · CSO PxStat FP009 (2016 by electoral division) · CSO GPIIA, household income 2022 · Neighbourhood figures are TownRatings sums of CSO Small Areas. 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).