Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Some 660 people live in this town, in Co. Galway.
A median €242,100 buys a home here, 4.7 years of what the median household earns. The car is not the only way to work here: 13% of commuters walk, cycle or use public transport.
With fewer than 1,000 residents, Ballygar falls below the line for grades among Irish towns.
The 3 things Ballygar does most differently from other towns.
The record adds 3 archaeological sites.
Homes built before 1919: 7%, against 3% across Irish towns.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Ballygar.
The nearest secondary, Coláiste Mhuire, is 0.3 km away. Families in Ballygar have 3 schools within 3 km to choose from: 2 primary schools and 1 secondary school. 33% of the schools are in the DEIS scheme, higher than Co. Galway’s towns (27%) and near Irish towns (35%).
| School | Level | Pupils | Ethos |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal DEISLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 81 | Catholic |
| Coláiste MhuireLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Post-primary · Voluntary secondary | 306 | Catholic |
| Schools within 3 km | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pupils since 2019/20 | +20% | +2% | +4% |
| Teach through Irish | 0% | 15% | 8% |
| Single-sex secondaries | 0% | 31% | 39% |
| In the DEIS scheme | 33% | 27% | 35% |
Department of Education school lists, 2025/26 (preliminary) · no results are published by school · Ireland publishes no results school by school, so these cards carry no letters or results.
No part of Ballygar is mapped as high landslide susceptibility. Radon is rarely a worry in the town: under 1% of homes are estimated above the reference level. Next to none of its homes lie low beside a river or the sea.
| Share of homes | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| In high-radon areas | 0% | 100% | 0% |
| On high landslide susceptibility | 0% | 0% | 0% |
EPA radon map, GSI landslide susceptibility and our low-lying homes estimate from OPW LiDAR.
Across the year it averages 10.0°C, below Co. Galway’s towns (10.3°C) and Irish towns (10.3°C) alike. Expect July highs of around 19.7°C in Ballygar. A year brings 1,080 mm of rain to Ballygar.
| Climate, 1991–2020 | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 2.2°C | 3.0°C | 2.9°C |
| Average temperature over the year | 10.0°C | 10.3°C | 10.3°C |
| July high | 19.7°C | 19.3°C | 19.9°C |
| Rain a year | 1,080 mm | 1,261 mm | 937 mm |
Met Éireann, 1991–2020 averages.
2.9% of residents described their health as bad or very bad, above both Co. Galway’s towns (1.9%) and Irish towns (2%). Unpaid caring falls to a tenth of Ballygar’s residents. In the HSE West and North West health region, 34% of people hold a medical card.
| Census 2022 | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unpaid carers | 9.8% | 5% | 5.4% |
| Bad or very bad health | 2.9% | 1.9% | 2% |
| Good or very good health | 87% | 88% | 88% |
| With a disability | 23% | 22% | 22% |
CSO, Census 2022 general health, disability and carers · CSO life expectancy by region, 2016 · HSE medical cards, 2024 · TownRatings age-standardised ratios
The private rented sector houses 29% of households. 54% of households own their home.
| Housing | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median sale price | €242K | €373K | €350K |
| Households renting privately | 29% | 36% | 22% |
| Households in social housing | 15% | 10% | 13% |
| Households owning their home | 54% | 52% | 61% |
Property Price Register · CSO residential prices by Eircode area · RTB rents · CSO, Census 2022 tenure · The price is for the postcode area F42, not the town alone: too few sales inside the town carry a full address.
Protected sites cover 13% of the land within 5 km, between Co. Galway’s towns (14%) and Irish towns (1.8%). Among the protected sites near Ballygar is Ballygar Bog NHA. Also worth knowing: 100% of homes have green space within 400 m.
| Outdoors | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woodland within 1 km | 8.5% | 1.8% | 2.7% |
| Protected nature within 5 km | 13% | 14% | 1.8% |
| Near a park | 100% | 80% | 92% |
| Paths per km² of town | 0.2 km per km² | 2.1 km per km² | 2.1 km per km² |
OpenStreetMap parks and paths, NPWS protected sites and the National Trails Register.
Unemployment stood at 13%, higher than both Co. Galway’s towns (9.6%) and Irish towns (9.2%). At the census, 64% of people aged 15 to 64 had a job. 79% of commuters took the car to work at the census.
| Census 2022 | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unemployment rate | 13% | 9.6% | 9.2% |
| Trips under 15 minutes | 46% | 37% | 31% |
| In work, 15 to 64 | 64% | 68% | 68% |
| Average trip | 28.8 min | 23.8 min | 27.6 min |
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.
27% of adults hold a degree, lower than both Co. Galway’s towns (47%) and Irish towns (36%). The 65-and-over age group makes up 17% of residents. Foreign-born residents make up 19% of the population.
Women make up 49.2% of Ballygar
325 women and 335 men live here; across Ireland, women are 50.6%.
| Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 17% | 20% |
| 15–24 | 10% | 14% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 31% | 31% | 29% |
| 45–64 | 24% | 22% | 24% |
| 65+ | 17% | 12% | 14% |
| Primary or none | 13% | 7.4% | 9.7% |
| Lower secondary | 16% | 10% | 14% |
| Leaving Cert | 41% | 29% | 35% |
| Diploma or cert | 3.4% | 5.5% | 5.8% |
| Degree or higher | 27% | 47% | 36% |
CSO, Census 2022 · Co. Galway and Ireland: the median of their towns of 2,500+
Just over half of voters turned out at the last local elections, above both Co. Galway’s towns (45%) and Irish towns (46%). There is just one council for Ballygar, Galway County Council: Ireland has only one tier of local government. No party holds a majority on Galway County Council: Fine Gael lead with 13 of 39 seats, short of the 20 needed.
| Turnout | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| General election, November 2024 | 66% | 58% | 59% |
| Local elections, June 2024 | 51% | 45% | 46% |
Department of Housing count sheets, 2024
7.2% of homes date from before 1919. For its size, Ballygar has 45 inventory buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than Co. Galway’s towns (33) yet lower than Irish towns (48).
| Heritage | Ballygar | Co. Galway | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes built before 1919 | 7.2% | 1.7% | 3.4% |
| Inventory buildings per 10,000 residents | 45 | 33 | 48 |
| Archaeological sites on the record | 3 | 19 | 11 |
NIAH, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage · Sites and Monuments Record · CSO, Census 2022 homes by year built
Nothing to visit is mapped within 5 km of Ballygar; these are the best known within 40 km.
Historic house · Office of Public WorksClonmacnoise31 km southeast
CastleRoscommon Castle15 km northeast
CastleGlinsk Castle16 km northwest
CathedralCathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary35 km west
CathedralClonfert Cathedral36 km southeast
Abbey or prioryRoscommon Abbey14 km northeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Surveyors for the national inventory recorded 3 buildings in Ballygar, each of regional importance. Archaeologists have recorded 3 sites here.
5 notable people were born in Ballygar.
The nearest places of 1,000 or more. Boundaries: Tailte Éireann, CSO Urban Areas 2022 and Electoral Divisions.
Ballygar had 660 people at the 2022 census, up from 659 in 2016: 0.2% more, against 7.6% in the median of Irish towns.
The median age in Ballygar is 39.6, against 37.6 in the median of Irish towns.
Urban area in Co. Galway
Ballygar has 660 people, in the area of Galway 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). 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).