Photo: Sarah777 at English Wikipedia · Public domainHalf of Boyle is over 43.8, older than 96% of Irish towns
Where 17% of residents said they have no religion across Ireland’s towns, Boyle has 11%. At the 2022 Census Boyle was home to 2,915 people in 1,169 households. One-person households account for 35%. Few places have so few households in flats: 5.2% here, fewer than in 87% of Irish towns.
What stands out about the people of Boyle
Older than most towns
Half of Boyle’s residents are under 43.8 and half over; the typical median across Irish towns is 37.6. 25% are 65 or over, against 14% across Ireland’s towns. Ages ↓
Written from the data on this page: CSO Census 2022.
Faster growth than 55% of Irish towns: Boyle changed by +8% 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.
Across Co. Roscommon’s towns the median is +12%, and across Ireland’s towns +8%.
Residents aged 65 and over: 25%, a higher share than 98% of Irish towns
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
The biggest five-year age group is 40–44, with 7.1% of residents. Typically, 14% of residents are 65 or over across Ireland’s towns. Nearly one in ten residents are aged 15 to 24, a lower share than in 97% of Irish towns.
Median age of Irish towns of 2,500+
■ Boyle, 43.8. The typical town is 37.6.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
53% women, 47% men
About 89 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Co. Roscommon 50.1%, Ireland 51.2%. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
Boyle ranks below 97% of Irish towns on students among residents 15 and over: 7.7%
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
Just over a third of Boyle’s residents are in the professional, managerial and technical classes and 14% in the semi-skilled and unskilled classes, against 34% and 15% across Ireland’s towns. Here, nearly one in ten residents lived at another address a year earlier.
Boyle households average 2.4 people, smaller than in 88% of Irish towns
Private households by CSO’s family types, beside the county’s towns and Ireland’s.
Against Co. Roscommon’s towns and Ireland’s towns
People per household
Ireland’s towns.
Set against 43% across Ireland’s towns, 37% of households are parents with children in Boyle. Across Boyle, 3.2% of households are unrelated adults sharing a home.
In Boyle, 2.2% of homes are holiday homes, more than in 91% 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 a fifth of households have no car or van (Ireland’s towns: 17%). On average, 0.2% of homes are holiday homes across Ireland’s towns.
Households here have a median income of €38,500 a year
Household income in 2022 from CSO’s linked administrative data (GPIIA): the middle household’s income before and after tax.
Half of households are below €38,500 a year before tax: 36% under the Ireland median (€60,120). Co. Roscommon as a whole has a median of €51,010.
21% born outside Ireland, fewer than in 52% 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 35%
Citizenship · share of all residents; the bar runs to 35%
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.
Among residents born abroad, the largest groups were born in the UK (8.4%) and elsewhere in the EU (5.3%). Set beside that, 22% of residents were born outside Ireland across Ireland’s towns. 15% of residents are citizens of another country, a higher share than in 50% of Irish towns.
Below 82% of Irish towns: 0.7% of residents speak Irish daily outside education
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
Irish speakers number 991, or 38% of residents aged 3 and over. Across Ireland’s towns, daily speakers of Irish outside education come to 1.1%.
79% of residents said they are Catholic, more than in 87% 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: 80% of Boyle · Co. Roscommon’s towns 72% · Ireland’s towns 78%.
Religion · all residents
Set against 78% across Ireland’s towns, 80% of residents describe themselves as White Irish in Boyle. The share of residents who said they are Catholic across Ireland’s towns is 71%. Of the other groups, the largest are Other White (12%), Asian or Asian Irish (3.7%) and Other, including mixed (2.3%).
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.
Unpaid carers make up 6%, close to the figure across Ireland’s towns. Census figures put married residents 15 and over at 34% in Boyle.
Adults with a degree or higher: 28%, a lower share than 69% of Irish towns
Highest level of education completed, residents 15 and over whose education has ended.
Highest qualification · residents 15+ whose education has ended
A postgraduate qualification is the highest level for 9.1% of adults; primary level or less for 13% (Ireland’s towns: 9.7%). The wider picture: 36% of adults whose education has ended hold a degree or higher across Ireland’s towns.
4th highest median age among 41 towns of 2,566 to 3,300
Median age of the Irish towns nearest in population; hover a dot.
Ages run from 30.4 in Kilbarry to 45.5 in Ballybrack. Nearest to Boyle in age: Togher (41.7), Bantry (43.5), Edenmore (44.1) and Kilrush (44.1).
No nearby town is as old as Boyle
The nearest places, coloured by median age; each is a census urban area.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Parents with children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boyle | 2,915 | — | 43.8 | 25% | 37% |
| Carrick-On-Shannon | 4,743 | 13.9 km | 37.3 | 14% | 38% |
| Drumshanbo | 1,240 | 18.9 km | 39.2 | 19% | 44% |
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Against Co. Roscommon’s towns and Ireland’s towns. Co. Roscommon has fewer than five towns of 2,500 or more, so its figure is the median of its towns of 1,000 or more; the national figure is the median of 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 Boyle’s residents
What is the population of Boyle?
Boyle had 2,915 residents at the 2022 Census, counted within its urban area, 8% more than 2016.
What is the average age in Boyle?
The median age is 43.8, older than 96% of Irish towns. 22% are under 18 and 25% 65 or older.
How many people speak Irish in Boyle?
38% of residents aged 3 and over can speak Irish (991 people), and 0.7% speak it every day outside education, against a typical 1.1% across Ireland’s towns.
How diverse is Boyle?
80% describe themselves as White Irish (Ireland’s towns: 78%); 21% were born abroad and 15% are citizens of another country.
What religion are people in Boyle?
79% are Catholic, 11% have no religion and 11% another religion; 6.9% didn’t say.
Is Boyle good for families?
37% of households are parents with children (Ireland’s towns 43%), and 22% of residents are under 18. Schools near Boyle are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Boyle?
Median gross household income in Boyle was €38,500 in 2022, against €51,010 across Co. Roscommon 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).