Photo: C Michael Hogan · CC BY-SA 2.0Household incomes in Clones are lower than in 98% of Irish towns
At the 2022 census, 11% of the labour force in Clones had no job, next to 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. On jobs and income together, Clones grades C+. People heading out of Clones for work or study spend 20.9 minutes travelling on average; 4.4% spend 60 minutes or longer.
What Clones’ work numbers say
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Clones had €34,300 a year before tax in 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760. Household income ↓
Shorter trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 20.9 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 4.4% 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.
On jobs and income, Clones grades C+
Taken together, its four measures make it better than 36% 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.
Median household income in Clones is €34,300
That puts Clones 32% below the median for County Monaghan as a whole, €50,617. Every town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. Net of tax, it is €32,283. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 75% above Clones’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
Against the middle of Irish towns, Clones has the shorter trip to work or school
The middle of County Monaghan averages 24.6 minutes a trip. Under 15 minutes: 48% of trips, much as in the middle of County Monaghan.
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.
The industries Clones’ residents work in
Professional services, health and education is the second-largest at 20%, against 25% across Irish towns; the smallest of the seven is farming, forestry and fishing, at 1.2%.
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.
65% of working-age people in Clones have jobs
None of the 3 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Monaghan has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Long-term unemployment, a year or more out of work, covered 2.5% of people aged 15 and over. Among the unemployed, 43% had been out of work that long. Counting everyone aged 15 and over, retirees and students included, 50% 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.
Leaving the car at home: 34% of commuters in Clones
By bus: 1.3% of commuters, next to 6% in the middle of Irish towns. On foot: 32% of commuters, well above the 13% in the middle of County Monaghan. 63% go by car or van, against 77% in the middle of County Monaghan.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
Signing on in County Monaghan: the count since 2019
1,635 people were signing on in County Monaghan in September 2026. It has stayed below its 2019 average for the last 49 months. Clones office saw its highest month in July 2019: 0 people signing on, 13% 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.
People signing on each month, as a share of the 2019 average (100).
In Clones, 50% of adults are in work
Compared with Irish towns, 7.7% are full-time students, 20% are retired (against 15%) and 8.2% 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.
On getting around on foot, Clones grades A
Better than 86% of Irish towns on two measures together.
Of the everyday places, a school is the one the fewest residents have within 800 m (87%).
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.
Neighbouring places to Clones, compared
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clones | 65% | 11% | €34K | 20.9 min | C+ | A |
| Cootehill 15.9 km | 69% | 11% | €39K | 23.9 min | C+ | B+ |
| Belturbet 16.4 km | 58% | 19% | €34K | 26.4 min | D− | C+ |
| Monaghan 18.6 km | 68% | 11% | €45K | 22.1 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 Clones, 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 Clones
What is the unemployment rate in Clones?
11% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 2.5% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
Is Clones a good place to find work?
Clones earns a C+ for jobs and income, better than 36% of Irish towns on household income, the share of 15-to-64s in work, unemployment and trip times together.
How do people in Clones get to work?
63% of commuters go by car or van, 32% walk, 0.6% cycle and 1.3% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 3.1% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Clones?
Trips to work, school or college take 20.9 minutes on average; 4.4% take an hour or more and 48% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Clones?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Clones’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Clones 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 Clones 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).