Photo: Sean an Scuab · CC BY-SA 3.0Making a living in Foynes
At the 2022 census, 8.7% of the labour force in Foynes had no job; the middle of Irish towns is 9.2%. The trip to work, school or college averages 26.6 minutes from Foynes; for 8.2%, it takes an hour or more. Foynes isn’t graded for jobs and income: it has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts.
Foynes at work: what stands out
Work near the middle
66% of people aged 15 to 64 in Foynes had a job at the 2022 census; the middle of Irish towns is 68%. In work ↓
Unemployment near the middle
8.7% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns; 2.3% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Unemployment ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022, CSO household income 2022 and the Live Register.
No Jobs & income Grade for Foynes
Foynes has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts. The figures on this page are still its own.
In Foynes, 29% of residents in work are in manufacturing, more than in most Irish towns
Professional services, health and education is the second-largest at 19%, against 25% across Irish towns; the smallest of the seven is farming, forestry and fishing, at 1.4%.
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.
Foynes at work: 66% of people aged 15 to 64
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.
2.3% of everyone aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Among the unemployed, 50% had been out of work that long. Of all residents aged 15 and over, retirees and students among them, 48% 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 in Foynes is €50,100
Before tax, 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760.
Foynes’s median is 10% 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 €43,260. The State median is €60,123, 20% above Foynes’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
Not by car: 8.5% of Foynes’ commuters walk, cycle or ride the bus or train
For 85% of commuters, the trip to work is by car or van. Home is the main workplace for 6.5%, where the middle of Irish towns has 11%. The bus takes 1% of commuters, against 6% in the middle of Irish towns. 6.5% walk and 1% cycle to work, against 10% and 2.4% in the middle of Irish towns.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
Foynes spends about as long getting to work or school as the middle of Irish towns
The middle of County Limerick averages 23 minutes a trip. In County Limerick, 15 of 15 towns counted average a shorter trip. Trips of under 15 minutes are 46% 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.
People signing on in County Limerick, against 2019
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: signing on peaked in July 2019 at 14,661, 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).
In work, studying or retired: 48% of Foynes’ adults work
Compared with Irish towns, 22% are retired (against 15%) and 7.1% 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 Foynes on foot
Not graded: the Walkability grade starts at 1,000 residents.
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.
The places around Foynes, side by side
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foynes | 66% | 8.7% | €50K | 26.6 min | — | — |
| Askeaton 8.5 km | 55% | 15% | €51K | 22.5 min | C− | C− |
| Rathkeale 15 km | 47% | 20% | €34K | 22.7 min | D− | B+ |
| Newcastle West 18 km | 67% | 9.3% | €49K | 24.9 min | B− | B− |
| Shannon 18.8 km | 68% | 9.1% | €52K | 18.4 min | B+ | C+ |
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 Foynes, 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 Foynes
What is the unemployment rate in Foynes?
8.7% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 2.3% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
How do people in Foynes get to work?
85% of commuters go by car or van, 6.5% walk, 1% cycle and 1% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 6.5% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Foynes?
Trips to work, school or college take 26.6 minutes on average; 8.2% take an hour or more and 46% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Foynes?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Foynes’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Foynes 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 Foynes 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).