Photo: Ian Rob · CC BY-SA 2.0A larger share of residents who said they are Catholic than 86% of Irish towns: 79%
Across Ireland’s towns, 4.7% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home; in Kells, 3.3%. For Kells, the census puts households in flats at 6.6%. Higher than in 64% of Irish towns: 45% of households are parents with children. 6,608 residents in 2,412 households: that is Kells at the 2022 Census.
Slower growth than 59% of Irish towns: Kells changed by +6% since 2016
Residents at the 2016 and 2022 censuses, on 2022 boundaries, and the change beside the county’s towns and Ireland’s.
Change, 2016 to 2022
CSO publishes yearly population estimates for counties and regions, not towns, so the trend is two censuses rather than a line; 2016 ages aren’t on 2022 boundaries, so there is no change by age.
The median change is +8% across Ireland’s towns and +11% across Co. Meath’s towns.
Older than 59% of Irish towns: half of Kells is over 38.4
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
Residents aged 15 to 24 make up 13%, against 12% across Ireland’s towns. No age band is larger than 10–14: nearly one in ten residents.
Median age of Irish towns of 2,500+
■ Kells, 38.4. The typical town is 37.6.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
51% women, 49% men
About an even split. Median share of women: Co. Meath 50.7%, Ireland 51.2%.
Fewer residents who moved in within the year than 71% of Irish towns: 6.2%
CSO’s social classes (everyone, by their own or their family’s occupation), the occupations of those at work, and where residents lived a year before the Census.
Residents by social class · all residents
Where residents lived a year earlier
Residents who lived somewhere else a year earlier. The bar runs to 25%.
Workers by occupation · residents at work
Students among residents 15 and over are about as common here as across Ireland’s towns, at 9.8%. For comparison, 7.5% of residents lived at another address a year earlier across Ireland’s towns.
Kells households average 2.7 people, larger than in 57% of Irish towns
Private households by CSO’s family types, beside the county’s towns and Ireland’s.
Against Co. Meath’s towns and Ireland’s towns
People per household
Ireland’s towns.
For Kells, the census puts one-person households at 25%.
Households without a car or van: 18%, a higher share than 51% of Irish towns
Home types, cars and the internet, by household. Owning and renting are on Cost of living.
Type of home
Cars or vans · share of households
Internet at home · share of households
Just over one in ten households have no internet access (typical: 7.6%); 87% have broadband. Holiday homes are more common here than in 58% of Irish towns. Across Ireland’s towns, the share of households without a car or van is 17%.
Half above, half below €52,110 a year in household income
Household income in 2022 from CSO’s linked administrative data (GPIIA): the middle household’s income before and after tax.
€52,110 a year before tax puts the median household 13% below Ireland (€60,120). For Co. Meath, the figure is €70,660.
19% born outside Ireland, fewer than in 63% of Irish towns
Place of birth and citizenship as CSO asks them: born abroad includes Irish citizens born abroad.
Born abroad, by birthplace · share of all residents; the bar runs to 30%
Citizenship · share of all residents; the bar runs to 30%
Citizens of another country, by citizenship; CSO counts dual Irish citizens as Irish.
Other languages · share of all residents
CSO’s small-area tables don’t give the year people arrived.
Residents with another country’s citizenship: 13%, below 62% of Irish towns. Set beside that, just over a fifth of residents were born outside Ireland across Ireland’s towns. Most residents from abroad were born elsewhere in the EU (6.3%) or in the UK (5%).
Irish speakers make up 33% of Kells
Residents aged 3 and over who can speak Irish, and how often they speak it outside education (CSO).
Irish speakers · residents aged 3 and over
Top of Co. Meath: Athboy, at 2.4%. On daily speakers of Irish outside education, Kells sits lower than nearly three quarters of Irish towns: 0.8%.
13% of residents said they have no religion, below 81% of Irish towns
Ethnic or cultural background and religion, in CSO’s categories, as people described themselves.
Ethnic groups other than White Irish · all residents
White Irish, not charted: 82% of Kells · Co. Meath’s towns 80% · Ireland’s towns 78%.
Religion · all residents
After White Irish, the largest groups are Other White (12%), Other, including mixed (2.3%) and Black or Black Irish (2%). Higher than in 67% of Irish towns: 82% of residents describe themselves as White Irish. Across Ireland’s towns, the share of residents with no religion is 17%.
Half of adults have never married
Marital status of residents 15 and over, and unpaid carers.
Partnership status · residents 15 and over
The small-area tables count carers, not their hours of care.
On unpaid carers, Kells sits higher than half of Irish towns: 5.4%. The census found that just over a third of residents 15 and over are married in the town.
Kells ranks below 77% of Irish towns on adults with a degree or higher: 25%
Highest level of education completed, residents 15 and over whose education has ended.
Highest qualification · residents 15+ whose education has ended
Across Ireland’s towns, one in ten adults finished at primary level or earlier; in Kells, 12%, and 8.2% hold a postgraduate qualification. Measured more widely, 36% of adults whose education has ended hold a degree or higher across Ireland’s towns.
41 towns of 5,766 to 7,581 people: this is the 16th oldest
Median age of the Irish towns nearest in population; hover a dot.
Ages run from 25.6 in Gillabbey to 45.4 in Sutton. Nearest to Kells in age: Castleknock (38.1), Roscommon (38.3), Ballinasloe (38.5) and Fermoy (38.9).
Nearby, 1 of 5 towns have older populations than Kells
The nearest places, coloured by median age; each is a census urban area.
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Against Co. Meath’s towns and Ireland’s towns. Each comparison is its own median: over Co. Meath’s towns of 2,500 or more and over the Irish towns of 2,500 or more (city totals left out). Percentiles are within Ireland only.
- The earlier population is an estimate. Towns had no official 2016 count on today’s boundaries, so the 2016 figure is CSO’s electoral-division count shared out by where people lived in 2022: read a small town in a large rural division loosely.
- What these tables don’t give. The small-area tables give no year of arrival and no hours of care, and a town’s electoral divisions run past its edge, so the page doesn’t split a town into named areas (a city lists its neighbourhoods).
- The census’s own words. Born abroad, citizenship, ethnic or cultural background and religion are CSO’s questions and categories; the page compares them with other towns and never labels a town by them.
Questions about Kells’s residents
What is the population of Kells?
Kells had 6,608 residents at the 2022 Census, counted within its urban area, 6% more than 2016.
What is the average age in Kells?
The median age is 38.4, older than 59% of Irish towns. 26% are under 18 and 14% 65 or older.
How many people speak Irish in Kells?
33% of residents aged 3 and over can speak Irish (1,974 people), and 0.8% speak it every day outside education, against a typical 1.1% across Ireland’s towns.
How diverse is Kells?
82% describe themselves as White Irish (Ireland’s towns: 78%); 19% were born abroad and 13% are citizens of another country.
What religion are people in Kells?
79% are Catholic, 13% have no religion and 8.9% another religion; 6.6% didn’t say.
Is Kells good for families?
45% of households are parents with children (Ireland’s towns 43%), and 26% of residents are under 18. Schools near Kells are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Kells?
Median gross household income in Kells was €52,110 in 2022, against €70,660 across Co. Meath and €60,120 for Ireland.
Sources: CSO, Census of Population 2022, Small Area Population Statistics · CSO PxStat FP009 (2016 by electoral division) · CSO GPIIA, household income 2022. 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).