Kilcock, #1 on this list · Photo: Ben Brooksbank (CC BY-SA 2.0)How the towns of Ireland stack up
320 towns of 2,500 or more in Ireland, ranked on every grade and figure the country has. Kilcock, Kildare, leads the overall list. Six of the lists follow the graded subjects, and seven rank described figures such as income, heritage and climate.
Letters compare each town with every town in Ireland; the lists sort on the same grades every town page shows. How grades work
Dunboyne makes the top 10 on four lists
Top-ten finishes on the 9 lists where first is plainly best (not climate or the size bands).
1- #2lowest hazard risk
- #6best places to live
- #7highest incomes
- #9healthiest
2- #3healthiest
- #4highest incomes
- #8best places to live
3- #1lowest hazard risk
- #4best places to live
- #1highest incomes
- #4healthiest
- #1most walkable
- #8most historic
- #2highest incomes
- #3lowest hazard risk
- #2jobs & income
- #5healthiest
- #2most historic
- #5most walkable
- #2most walkable
- #5most historic
- #4jobs & income
- #5best places to live
16 ways to rank a town
Towns of 2,500 or more, grouped by what they measure.
Overall, and by size
Subject by subject
- Kilrush, ClareA+
- Ballyhaunis, MayoA+
- Charleville, CorkA+
- Crosshaven, CorkA+
- Passage West-Monkstown, CorkA+
- Blarney, CorkA+
- Castleknock, DublinA+
- Foxrock, DublinA+
- Portmarnock, DublinA+
- Ballinlough, CorkA+
- Ballsbridge, DublinA+
- Ballincollig, CorkA+
- O'Connell Street, DublinA+
- Temple Bar, DublinA+
- Summerhill, DublinA+
- Ashbourne, MeathA+
- Dunboyne, MeathA+
- Ratoath, MeathA+
Described: figures, no letters
- Malahide, Dublin€97,168
- Ratoath, Meath€96,273
- Donabate, Dublin€95,871
- Cork City Centre, Cork1,813
- St Stephen's Green, Dublin1,624
- Sunday's Well, Cork998
- Skibbereen, Cork7°C (45°F)
- Clonakilty, Cork7°C (45°F)
- Bantry, Cork7°C (44°F)
- Enniscorthy, Wexford21°C (69°F)
- Mahon, Cork21°C (69°F)
- Carrick-on-Suir, Tipperary21°C (69°F)
- Carndonagh, Donegal18°C (64°F)
- Westport, Mayo18°C (65°F)
- Buncrana, Donegal18°C (65°F)
- Portmarnock, Dublin725 mm
- Donabate, Dublin725 mm
- Sutton, Dublin729 mm
- Kenmare, Kerry1,856 mm
- Bantry, Cork1,591 mm
- Killarney, Kerry1,510 mm
How the rankings work
- 2,500 residents or more. Every list ranks the towns of that size; the national list of best places runs 100 to a page, and a county with 15 or more ranked towns has its own.
- One grade everywhere. A town’s letter is the same on every list and on its own page, and it compares the town with towns in Ireland only.
- No ties left standing. Where two towns share a grade or a figure, the one with the better overall rank goes first.
- Described lists carry no letters. Income, heritage and climate are figures, not grades: the list shows the figure itself.
- A list for what is measured. There is no schools list (school results aren’t published for comparison under section 53), and none for outdoors, civic life, council tax or frosts, which Ireland has no town figure for.
- Campus towns sit out. Towns where most residents are students keep their grades but aren’t ranked.
Best places to live, county by county
Photos: Kilcock, Ben Brooksbank (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranking Irish towns against each other only, run #54 of 3 November 2026. 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).