Photo: HENRY CLARK · CC BY-SA 2.0Households in Oldcastle earn less than those in 74% of Irish towns
Out of work at the 2022 census: 11% of the labour force in Oldcastle, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. Oldcastle grades C for jobs and income. Getting to work, school or college from Oldcastle takes 25.6 minutes on average, and 12% take an hour or more.
Where Oldcastle stands out on work
Work near the middle
64% of people aged 15 to 64 in Oldcastle had a job at the 2022 census; the middle of Irish towns is 68%. In work ↓
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Oldcastle had €46,390 a year before tax in 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760. CSO publishes no income figure for this place, so this one is our estimate from its electoral divisions. Household income ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022, CSO household income 2022 and the Live Register.
Oldcastle grades C for jobs and income
Its four measures together rank it better than 27% of Irish towns.
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.
Ranks start at 2,500 residents, so this grade has no rank.
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.
The median household in Oldcastle has €46,390 a year
That puts Oldcastle 34% below the median for County Meath as a whole, €70,657. Every town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. Net of tax, it is €42,570. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 30% above Oldcastle’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
The industries behind Oldcastle’s jobs
The second-largest is Manufacturing, at 27%, and public administration is the smallest of the seven, at 2%.
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 Oldcastle, 64% of people of working age are in work
None of the 12 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Meath has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Long-term unemployment, a year or more out of work, covered 3.6% of people aged 15 and over. Put another way, 54% of the unemployed had been out of work for a year or more. Counting everyone aged 15 and over, retirees and students included, 54% 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.
Oldcastle gets to work without a car for 17% of commuters
Buses carry 0.8% of commuters, where the middle of Irish towns has 6%. More people walk to work here than in the middle of County Meath: 15% against 4.3%.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
The trip to work or school is shorter from Oldcastle than in the middle of Irish towns
In the middle of County Meath, the trip averages 32.9 minutes. Of the 12 towns of County Meath counted, none has a shorter average trip. 51% of trips take under 15 minutes, against 29% in the middle of County Meath.
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.
County Meath on the Live Register since 2019
3,692 people were signing on in County Meath in September 2026. It has stayed below its 2019 average for the last 71 months. Its lowest month since 2019 was November 2024, at 3,559. County Meath: signing on peaked in July 2020 at 5,146, 14% 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).
How Oldcastle spends its days: 54% of adults in work
Compared with Irish towns, 6.6% 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.
The Walkability grade for Oldcastle: B+
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.
How Oldcastle compares with the places nearby
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oldcastle | 64% | 11% | €46K | 25.6 min | C | B+ |
| Virginia 8.9 km | 68% | 9.2% | €54K | 33 min | C+ | C |
| Ballyjamesduff 10.9 km | 65% | 11% | €50K | 26.9 min | C | B |
| Castlepollard 13.4 km | 56% | 16% | €42K | 26.6 min | D− | B |
| Mullagh 14.8 km | 62% | 11% | €53K | 34.4 min | D | C− |
| Kells 19 km | 64% | 12% | €52K | 31.7 min | D | 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 Oldcastle, 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 Oldcastle
What is the unemployment rate in Oldcastle?
11% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 3.6% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
Is Oldcastle a good place to find work?
Oldcastle earns a C for jobs and income, better than 27% of Irish towns on household income, the share of 15-to-64s in work, unemployment and trip times together.
How do people in Oldcastle get to work?
77% of commuters go by car or van, 15% walk, 1.2% cycle and 0.8% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 4.7% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Oldcastle?
Trips to work, school or college take 25.6 minutes on average; 12% take an hour or more and 51% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Oldcastle?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Oldcastle’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Oldcastle 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 Oldcastle 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).