Photo: Georgelangan · CC BY-SA 3.0Work and commuting in Athea
Trips to work, school or college from Athea take 32.4 minutes on average, and 15% take an hour or more. Unemployment in Athea stood at 8.1% at the 2022 census, where the middle of Irish towns has 9.2%. The Jobs & income Grade leaves out Athea: it has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts.
What sets Athea apart on jobs and income
Work near the middle
64% of people aged 15 to 64 in Athea had a job at the 2022 census; the middle of Irish towns is 68%. In work ↓
Longer trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 32.4 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 15% 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 figures behind jobs and income in Athea
Athea has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts. The figures on this page are still its own.
Against the middle of Irish towns, Athea has the longer trip to work or school
45% of trips take 15 to 44 minutes, where the middle of County Limerick has 57%. For the middle of County Limerick, the average trip is 23 minutes. In County Limerick, 15 of 15 towns counted average a shorter trip. Trips of under 15 minutes are 30% of the total, against 37% in the middle of County Limerick.
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.
Where Athea’s residents work, by industry
The second-largest is Professional services, health and education, at 21% (against 25% across Irish towns), and public administration is the smallest of the seven, at 3.1%.
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.
Working-age people in Athea: 64% have a job
Of the 15 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Limerick, 9 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
2.4% of everyone aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Put another way, 57% of the unemployed had been out of work for a year or more. Of all residents aged 15 and over, retirees and students among them, 47% 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.
Median household income: €49,890 a year
Before tax, 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760.
Athea’s median is 11% below County Limerick’s (€55,952). Of the county’s 15 towns of 2,500 or more, 8 have a higher median. After tax, the median is €44,710. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 21% above Athea’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
5.1% of Athea’s commuters walk, cycle, or take the bus or train
The middle of Irish towns has 11% working mainly from home; here it is 6.5%. The middle of Irish towns has 6% going by bus; here it is 0.6%. Walking takes 4.5% of commuters, where the middle of Irish towns has 10%. The car or van carries most commuters: 87%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
The Live Register in County Limerick, month by month
11,541 people were signing on in County Limerick in September 2026. Over the year to September 2026, the count fell by 1%. Its lowest month since 2019 was March 2025, at 10,525. County Limerick saw its highest month in July 2019: 14,661 people signing on, 12% 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. This place has no office of its own name, so the chart is its county’s or city’s.
People signing on each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
47% of adults in Athea are in work
Compared with Irish towns, 6.8% are full-time students (against 11%), 21% are retired and 9.8% are long-term sick or disabled (against 4.7%).
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), principal economic status of people aged 15 and over; occupations of those at work, in three broad groups.
Getting around Athea on foot
Not graded: the Walkability grade starts at 1,000 residents.
Fewest residents live within 800 m of a food shop: 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.
Jobs near Athea: the places around it
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Athea | 64% | 8.1% | €50K | 32.4 min | — | — |
| Abbeyfeale 8.5 km | 60% | 16% | €40K | 27.3 min | D− | D |
| Listowel 13.4 km | 61% | 14% | €40K | 22.3 min | D | C− |
| Newcastle West 15.6 km | 67% | 9.3% | €49K | 24.9 min | B− | 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 Athea, 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 Athea
What is the unemployment rate in Athea?
8.1% 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.
How do people in Athea get to work?
87% of commuters go by car or van, 4.5% walk, 0% cycle and 0.6% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 6.5% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Athea?
Trips to work, school or college take 32.4 minutes on average; 15% take an hour or more and 30% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Athea?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Athea’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Athea 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 Athea travel and how long their trips take.
Sources: CSO Census 2022 SAPS · CSO Geographical Profiles of Income 2022 · CSO Live Register (LRM07) · OpenStreetMap (ODbL). 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).