Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 1,042 in Co. Mayo. It grew by 10% between the 2016 and 2022 censuses.
Housing is within reach (A+): homes sell for a median €170,000, about 4.4 times what a household here earns in a year. Health is a weak point (C): for every 100 its ages would predict, 133 residents are in bad health and 113 have a disability. Natural hazards weigh less here than in most Irish towns. Radon is barely a concern: almost no homes exceed the reference level.
Figures: prices, Property Price Register, 2023 to 2025 · incomes, CSO · health, CSO Census 2022 · radon, EPA. Irish towns get an overall grade from 2,500 residents, so Béal An Mhuirthead has subject grades only.
No Safety Grade: the Garda station covering this town records too few incidents to grade (under 30 a year and under 5 per 1,000 residents). Health less sure: few enough residents report bad health that the town's figure could be well above or below its true level. This town's Hazard risk Grade uses radon and landslides only: open LiDAR heights don't cover enough of its homes to measure flooding, so flood isn't counted for or against it.
Each subject compares Béal An Mhuirthead with Irish towns of 2,500 or more, ordered by how far it is from the middle. Towns in other countries are graded separately.
Irish towns get an overall grade from 2,500 residents, so Béal An Mhuirthead has subject grades only.
How TownRatings grades Irish towns →
The 3 things Béal An Mhuirthead does most differently from other towns.
2 archaeological sites are on the record here too.
5% of its homes were built before 1919, against 3% in the median of Irish towns.
6 of Béal An Mhuirthead’s buildings made the national inventory of architectural heritage, all at regional importance. The national record lists 2 archaeological sites in and around the town.
Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Béal An Mhuirthead.
Private renters make up 33% of households, about level with Co. Mayo’s towns (34%) and above Irish towns (22%). Home ownership covers 50% of households. 14% of households live in social housing.
| By type | Median | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Second-hand homes | €159,400 | 72 |
| Housing | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rent on a new tenancy, a month | €745 | €1,047 | €1,606 |
| Median sale price | €170K | €190K | €350K |
| Households owning their home | 50% | 54% | 61% |
| Households renting privately | 33% | 34% | 22% |
Property Price Register · CSO residential prices by Eircode area · RTB rents · CSO, Census 2022 tenure
Elly Bay, Belmullet, 9.2 km from Béal An Mhuirthead, is the closest bathing water; it was rated excellent in 2025. No part of Béal An Mhuirthead is mapped as high landslide susceptibility. Radon is rarely a worry in the town: under 1% of homes are estimated above the reference level.
| Share of homes | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| In high-radon areas | 0% | 97% | 0% |
| On high landslide susceptibility | 0% | 0.1% | 0% |
EPA radon map, GSI landslide susceptibility and our low-lying homes estimate from OPW LiDAR.
Just over a quarter of residents have a disability, higher than both Co. Mayo’s towns (21%) and Irish towns (22%). Poor health, by residents’ own account, affects 2.7% of the town. In the HSE West and North West health region, 34% of people hold a medical card.
| Census 2022 | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 84% | 87% | 88% |
| With a disability | 26% | 21% | 22% |
| Bad or very bad health | 2.7% | 2.4% | 2% |
CSO, Census 2022 general health, disability and carers · CSO life expectancy by region, 2016 · HSE medical cards, 2024 · TownRatings age-standardised ratios
Pupil numbers changed +5% since 2019/20, below Co. Mayo’s towns (+10%) but above Irish towns (+4%). 4 schools lie within 3 km of Béal An Mhuirthead: 2 primary schools and 2 secondary schools. For secondary school, the closest is Our Lady's Secondary School, 0.6 km from the town.
| School | Level | Pupils | Ethos |
|---|---|---|---|
| S.N. Croi Muire DEISLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 127 | Catholic |
| St. Brendan's College DEISLargest post-primary schoolPost-primary · ETB | Post-primary · ETB | 357 | Multi-denominational |
| Our Lady's Secondary School DEISIn the DEIS schemePost-primary · Voluntary secondary | Post-primary · Voluntary secondary | 265 | Catholic |
| Schools within 3 km | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| In the DEIS scheme | 100% | 18% | 35% |
| Single-sex secondaries | 0% | 33% | 39% |
| Teach through Irish | 0% | 4% | 8% |
| Pupils since 2019/20 | +5% | +10% | +4% |
Department of Education school lists, 2025/26 (preliminary) · no results are published by school · No school here carries a letter or a result: Ireland publishes neither for individual schools.
Across the year, Béal An Mhuirthead averages 10.4°C. January nights bottom out at 4.2°C here, higher than both Co. Mayo’s towns (2.6°C) and Irish towns (2.9°C). Also worth knowing: this Co. Mayo town gets 1,337 mm of rain a year.
| Climate, 1991–2020 | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| July high | 17.4°C | 18.7°C | 19.9°C |
| January low | 4.2°C | 2.6°C | 2.9°C |
| Rain a year | 1,337 mm | 1,314 mm | 937 mm |
| Average temperature over the year | 10.4°C | 9.9°C | 10.3°C |
Met Éireann, 1991–2020 averages.
For 70% of homes, green space is under 400 m away. Within 1 km, 0.2% of the land is woodland, below both Co. Mayo’s towns (3.2%) and Irish towns (2.7%). Green space in Béal An Mhuirthead works out at 1.5 ha per 1,000 people.
| Outdoors | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protected nature within 5 km | 15% | 3.4% | 1.8% |
| Sea within 5 km | 35% | 0% | 0% |
| Near a park | 70% | 85% | 92% |
| Woodland within 1 km | 0.2% | 3.2% | 2.7% |
OpenStreetMap parks and paths, NPWS protected sites and the National Trails Register.
The heaviest rain of the week is due on Monday, around 11 mm. Judged by the averages, Béal An Mhuirthead sees November days reach 11°C and nights fall to 6°C. A dry day with a stiff breeze lies ahead today: wind building to 36 km/h, then a low of 9°C.
| Season | High | Low | Rain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter | 9°C | 4°C | 408 mm |
| Spring | 12°C | 6°C | 253 mm |
| Summer | 17°C | 12°C | 278 mm |
| Autumn | 14°C | 9°C | 398 mm |
Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0) · normals: Met Éireann, 1991–2020
24% were born abroad, below Co. Mayo’s towns (29%) but above Irish towns (22%). People 65 and over make up 18% of the town. The share aged 15 to 24 is 9.6%.
52.5% of Béal An Mhuirthead’s residents are women
547 women and 495 men live here; across Ireland, women are 50.6%.
| Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 19% | 21% | 20% |
| 15–24 | 9.6% | 11% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 28% | 30% | 29% |
| 45–64 | 26% | 24% | 24% |
| 65+ | 18% | 14% | 14% |
| Primary or none | 12% | 9.5% | 9.7% |
| Lower secondary | 16% | 13% | 14% |
| Leaving Cert | 41% | 40% | 35% |
| Diploma or cert | 5.4% | 5.8% | 5.8% |
| Degree or higher | 25% | 31% | 36% |
CSO, Census 2022 · Co. Mayo and Ireland: the median of their towns of 2,500+
Mayo County Council runs Béal An Mhuirthead: Ireland has one tier of local government, with no town council below it. General election turnout: 64%, about level with Co. Mayo’s towns (64%) and above Irish towns (59%). With 10 of 30 seats, Fine Gael are the largest group on Mayo County Council, short of the 16 a majority needs.
| Turnout | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Local elections, June 2024 | 61% | 60% | 46% |
| General election, November 2024 | 64% | 64% | 59% |
Department of Housing count sheets, 2024
Relative to its size, Béal An Mhuirthead keeps 58 buildings on the inventory per 10,000 residents. 2 archaeological sites are on the record, below both Co. Mayo’s towns (21) and Irish towns (11). The pre-1919 share of homes is 5.2%.
| Heritage | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory buildings per 10,000 residents | 58 | 85 | 48 |
| Archaeological sites on the record | 2 | 21 | 11 |
| Homes built before 1919 | 5.2% | 4.4% | 3.4% |
NIAH, the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage · Sites and Monuments Record · CSO, Census 2022 homes by year built
66% of people aged 15 to 64 were in work at the census. Commutes averaged 18.3 min, below both Co. Mayo’s towns (20.8 min) and Irish towns (27.6 min). At the census, 6% of workers worked mainly from home.
| Census 2022 | Béal An Mhuirthead | Co. Mayo | Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trips under 15 minutes | 70% | 55% | 31% |
| Average trip | 18.3 min | 20.8 min | 27.6 min |
| Median household income | €38,300 | €49,791 | €57,760 |
| In work, 15 to 64 | 66% | 67% | 68% |
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.
5 notable people were born in Béal An Mhuirthead.
Urban area in Co. Mayo
1,042 people live in Béal An Mhuirthead, in the area of Mayo 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)
Béal An Mhuirthead had 1,042 people at the 2022 census, up from 950 in 2016: 9.7% more, against 7.6% in the median of Irish towns.
The median age in Béal An Mhuirthead is 41.2, against 37.6 in the median of Irish towns. 19% of residents are under 15 and 18% are 65 or over.
Sources: CSO, Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics (CC BY 4.0) · Tailte Éireann, Urban Areas and Electoral Divisions 2022 (CC BY 4.0) · TownRatings grades, run #544 (Irish towns only). 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).