Photo: Sarah777 · CC BY-SA 2.0Where Rhode earns its living
Out of work at the 2022 census: 14% of the labour force in Rhode, where the middle of Irish towns has 9.2%. Travel time from Rhode to work, school or college: 36.7 minutes on average, an hour or longer for 18%. No Jobs & income Grade is given to Rhode: it has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts.
Work in Rhode, in a few figures
Fewer people in work than most towns
59% of people aged 15 to 64 in Rhode had a job at the 2022 census; the middle of Irish towns is 68%. In work ↓
More unemployment than most towns
14% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns; 4.4% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Unemployment ↓
Longer trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 36.7 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 18% 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.
Jobs and income in Rhode: the figures
Rhode has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts. The figures on this page are still its own.
The share of 15-to-64s in work in Rhode: 59%
None of the 4 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Offaly has a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
Long-term unemployment, a year or more out of work, covered 4.4% of people aged 15 and over. Among the unemployed, 56% had been out of work that long. Counting everyone aged 15 and over, retirees and students included, 49% 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.
More time on the road to work or school from Rhode than in the middle of Irish towns
In County Offaly, 4 of 4 towns counted average a shorter trip. Against 50% in the middle of County Offaly, 25% of trips take under 15 minutes. 47% of trips take 15 to 44 minutes, where the middle of County Offaly has 35%. The middle of County Offaly averages 23.7 minutes a trip.
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 work of Rhode’s residents, industry by industry
The second-largest is Professional services, health and education, at 25% (against 25% across Irish towns), and transport and communications is the smallest of the seven, at 3%.
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.
Half the households here have more than €59,040 a year
Before tax, 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760.
That puts Rhode 5% above the median for County Offaly as a whole, €56,048. No town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. Net of tax, it is €52,600. The State median is €60,123, 2% above Rhode’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
8.4% of people travelling to work from Rhode walk, cycle or take the bus or train
By car or van: 85% of commuters, next to 73% in the middle of County Offaly. The middle of Irish towns has 11% working mainly from home; here it is 6.5%. On foot: 4.2% of commuters, next to 10% in the middle of Irish towns. By bus: 4.2% of commuters, well above the 1% in the middle of County Offaly.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
Signing on in County Offaly since 2019
2,937 people were signing on in County Offaly in September 2026. Set against a year before, the count in September 2026 fell by 2%. For 73 months in a row now, it has been under its 2019 average. Its lowest month since 2019 was March 2025, at 2,930. County Offaly: signing on peaked in July 2019 at 4,211, 9% 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 Rhode spends its days: 49% of adults in work
Compared with Irish towns, 7.9% 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.
Walking to the shops, school and post office in Rhode
Not graded: the Walkability grade starts at 1,000 residents.
Fewest residents live within 800 m of a food shop: 0%.
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 Rhode compares with the places nearby
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rhode | 59% | 14% | €59K | 36.7 min | — | — |
| Daingean 8.4 km | 62% | 14% | €56K | 31.6 min | D | D |
| Edenderry 9.5 km | 63% | 12% | €54K | 32 min | D | C+ |
| Rochfortbridge 9.6 km | 62% | 9.7% | €54K | 32.2 min | C− | B |
| Kinnegad 13.4 km | 65% | 9.3% | €61K | 37.7 min | C | B+ |
| Derrinturn 17.6 km | 64% | 12% | €57K | 33.7 min | D | D |
| Killucan-Rathwire 17.9 km | 68% | 9.2% | €65K | 33.6 min | C+ | 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 Rhode, 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 Rhode
What is the unemployment rate in Rhode?
14% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 4.4% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
How do people in Rhode get to work?
85% of commuters go by car or van, 4.2% walk, 0% cycle and 4.2% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 6.5% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Rhode?
Trips to work, school or college take 36.7 minutes on average; 18% take an hour or more and 25% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Rhode?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Rhode’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Rhode 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 Rhode 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).