Photo: Ian S · CC BY-SA 2.0Killarney has a larger share of its working-age people in jobs than 78% of Irish towns
Out of work at the 2022 census: 9.3% of the labour force in Killarney (the middle of Irish towns: 9.2%). Killarney grades B+ for jobs and income, #1 of 5 in County Kerry. Trips to work, school or college from Killarney take 21.7 minutes on average, with 6.1% taking an hour or more.
What the numbers say about work in Killarney
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Killarney had €47,878 a year before tax in 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760. Household income ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 21.7 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 6.1% 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.
The Jobs & income grade for Killarney: B+
Its four measures together rank it better than 73% of Irish towns, #1 of 5 in County Kerry.
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.
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.
Killarney at the median: €47,878 a household
Before tax, 2022: lower than in 69% of Irish towns.
That puts Killarney 1% below the median for County Kerry as a whole, €48,320. No other town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. Net of tax, it is €42,707. The State median is €60,123, 26% above Killarney’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 is quicker from Killarney than in the middle of Irish towns
In County Kerry, 2 of 5 towns counted average a shorter trip. Under 15 minutes: 53% of trips, much as in the middle of County Kerry.
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 the people of Killarney do for work
The second-largest is Professional services, health and education, at 20% (against 25% across Irish towns), and farming, forestry and fishing is the smallest of the seven, at 0.7%.
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 Killarney, 71% of people aged 15 to 64 have a job
All 4 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Kerry have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Long-term unemployment, a year or more out of work, covered 2.4% of people aged 15 and over. Put another way, 41% of the unemployed had been out of work for a year or more. Counting everyone aged 15 and over, retirees and students included, 57% 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.
Incomes inside Killarney run from €47K to €70K
Median gross household income in each of the 3 electoral divisions where 50 or more of Killarney’s households live: the highest is 1.5 times the lowest. The share of people aged 15 to 64 in work runs from 68% in Killarney Rural to 80% in Muckross.
| Electoral division | Households here | Median income (whole division) | Aged 15–64 in work (here) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Killarney Urban | 3,565 | €46,643 | 72% |
| Killarney Rural | 1,215 | €57,023 | 68% |
| Muckross | 96 | €70,366 | 80% |
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022 (GPIIA01): each division’s median covers all its households, including any outside Killarney; households and the share in work are Killarney’s own part (Census 2022, CSO SAPS).
How Killarney gets to work: 31% without a car
More people take the bus to work here than in the middle of County Kerry: 4.2% against 0.9%. 60% go by car or van, against 71% in the middle of County Kerry. Home is the main workplace for 8%, where the middle of Irish towns has 11%. Walking takes 22% of commuters and cycling 4.6%, where the middle of Irish towns has 10% and 2.4%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
19% fewer people sign on in County Kerry than in 2019
4,870 people were signing on in County Kerry in September 2026. Set against a year before, the count in September 2026 fell by 7%. It has stayed below its 2019 average for the last 30 months. Killarney office: signing on peaked in January 2023 at 1,878, 76% 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).
57% of people 16 and over in Killarney are in work
Compared with Irish towns, 7.7% are full-time students (against 11%).
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 Killarney: B
Better than 57% of Irish towns on two measures together, #1 of 5 in County Kerry.
Fewest residents live within 800 m of a post office: 39%.
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.
Ranked on jobs and income, Killarney is 33rd among 84 Irish towns of 10,100 to 19,500
| # | Town | People | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ballsbridge County Dublin | 12,743 | 80% | 5.2% | €99K | A+ |
| 2 | Rathmines East County Dublin | 16,923 | 77% | 5.4% | €94K | A+ |
| 3 | Terenure County Dublin | 10,391 | 78% | 4.7% | €87K | A+ |
| … | ||||||
| 31 | Shannon County Clare | 10,256 | 68% | 9.1% | €52K | B+ |
| 32 | Dún Laoghaire County Dublin | 17,994 | 72% | 7.9% | €72K | B+ |
| 33 | Killarney County Kerry | 14,412 | 71% | 9.3% | €48K | B+ |
| 34 | Clonmel County Tipperary | 18,369 | 68% | 8.5% | €51K | B+ |
| 35 | Maynooth County Kildare | 17,259 | 68% | 5.4% | €89K | B+ |
| … | ||||||
| 84 | Summerhill County Dublin | 11,911 | 60% | 15% | €45K | D− |
Ordered by Jobs & income Grade: the top three, the towns either side of Killarney, and others in County Kerry.
Work next door to Killarney
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Killarney | 71% | 9.3% | €48K | 21.7 min | B+ | B |
| Milltown 17.3 km | 65% | 12% | €52K | 22.7 min | C+ | B− |
The people of each place: the share in work, unemployment, household income and trip times, with both grades.
What this data can and can’t tell you
What each figure measures for Killarney, 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 Killarney
What is the unemployment rate in Killarney?
9.3% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 2.4% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
Is Killarney a good place to find work?
Killarney earns a B+ for jobs and income, better than 73% of Irish towns on household income, the share of 15-to-64s in work, unemployment and trip times together, #1 of 5 in County Kerry.
How do people in Killarney get to work?
60% of commuters go by car or van, 22% walk, 4.6% cycle and 4.7% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 8% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Killarney?
Trips to work, school or college take 21.7 minutes on average; 6.1% take an hour or more and 53% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Killarney?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Killarney’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Killarney 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 Killarney 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).