Photo: 瑞丽江的河水 · CC BY-SA 4.0Older than 83% of Irish towns: half of Bray is over 40.7
Residents with no religion: 25%, above 82% of Irish towns. At the 2022 Census, 33,512 people lived in Bray, in 11,840 households. Census figures put households in flats at 16% locally. Just over a fifth of households are one person living alone, fewer than in 63% of Irish towns.
Slower growth than 79% of Irish towns: Bray changed by +3% 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.
Medians for comparison: +8% across Ireland’s towns; +13% across Co. Wicklow’s towns.
More residents aged 65 and over than 69% of Irish towns: 16%
Share of residents in each five-year band; the tick is the typical town.
The largest age band is 40–44: 7.9% of residents. As a yardstick, 14% of residents are 65 or over across Ireland’s towns. Residents aged 15 to 24 are more common here than in 54% of Irish towns.
Median age of Irish towns of 2,500+
■ Bray, 40.7. The typical town is 37.6.
Broad ages · share of residents
Women and men · all residents
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Median share of women: Co. Wicklow 50.8%, Ireland 51.2%.
Bray ranks above 54% of Irish towns on students among residents 15 and over: 11%
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
Across Ireland’s towns, 34% of residents are in the professional, managerial and technical classes and 15% in the semi-skilled and unskilled classes; in Bray, 44% and 13%. Fewer residents who moved in within the year than in 62% of Irish towns: 6.7%.
Bray households average 2.8 people, larger than in 65% of Irish towns
Private households by CSO’s family types, beside the county’s towns and Ireland’s.
Against Co. Wicklow’s towns and Ireland’s towns
People per household
Ireland’s towns.
Shared households of unrelated adults make up 3.9%, close to the figure across Ireland’s towns. For Bray, the census puts households of parents with children at 44%.
84% of homes are houses
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
Connected households: 92% on broadband; 6.5% offline (typical: 7.6%). Few places have so few holiday homes: 0.2% here, fewer than in 54% of Irish towns. Across Bray, 17% of households have no car or van.
Median household income: €64,120 a year
Household income in 2022 from CSO’s linked administrative data (GPIIA): the middle household’s income before and after tax.
At €64,120 a year before tax, the median household income is 7% above that of Ireland (€60,120). Co. Wicklow comes in at €64,080 at the median.
Bray ranks below 60% of Irish towns on residents with another country’s citizenship: 13%
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 30%
Citizenship · share of all residents; the bar runs to 30%
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 outside the EU and UK (8.2%) and in the UK (5.1%). Set beside that, 15% of residents are citizens of another country across Ireland’s towns. Compared with other places, residents born outside Ireland are scarce here: 21%, fewer than in 54% of Irish towns.
Irish speakers: 37% of Bray’s residents
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
Nothing unusual on daily speakers of Irish outside education: 1.4%, close to the figure across Ireland’s towns. The ability to speak Irish extends to 11,329 residents (37% of those aged 3 and over). It is the highest share of Co. Wicklow’s 9 towns of 2,500+.
Bray sits below 76% of Irish towns for residents who said they are Catholic (64%)
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: 81% of Bray · Co. Wicklow’s towns 83% · Ireland’s towns 78%.
Religion · all residents
In Bray, just over four in five residents describe themselves as White Irish, beside 78% across Ireland’s towns. The share of residents who said they are Catholic across Ireland’s towns is 71%. Other than White Irish, most residents describe themselves as Other White (11%), Asian or Asian Irish (5%) and Other, including mixed (2.3%).
A higher share of married residents 15 and over than 76% of Irish towns, at 38%
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.
Census figures put unpaid carers at 5.6% in Bray. 52% of the town’s residents 15 and over are single and 38% married, against 56% and 34% across Ireland’s towns.
Bray sits above 54% of Irish towns for adults with a degree or higher (38%)
Highest level of education completed, residents 15 and over whose education has ended.
Highest qualification · residents 15+ whose education has ended
At the top, 14% of adults have a postgraduate qualification; at the other end, 10% finished at primary level or earlier, against 9.7% across Ireland’s towns. As a reference point, 36% of adults whose education has ended hold a degree or higher across Ireland’s towns.
Of 41 towns its size (18,608 to 44,135 people), the 4th oldest
Median age of the Irish towns nearest in population; hover a dot.
The youngest is Jobstown (32.4) and the oldest Beaumont (42.9). Nearest to Bray in age: Greystones-Delgany (39.4), Wexford (40.6), Malahide (42) and Clontarf East (42.5).
5 of the 6 nearest towns are older than Bray
The nearest places, coloured by median age; each is a census urban area.
| Town | People | Away | Median age | 65+ | Parents with children |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bray | 33,512 | — | 40.7 | 16% | 44% |
| Kilmacanogue | 1,240 | 3.5 km | 43.1 | 18% | 45% |
| Enniskerry | 2,000 | 3.9 km | 42.7 | 16% | 51% |
| Shankill | 11,009 | 4.1 km | 42.2 | 18% | 45% |
| Killiney | 9,776 | 6.2 km | 42.5 | 19% | 48% |
| Greystones-Delgany | 22,009 | 6.9 km | 39.4 | 14% | 51% |
| Ballybrack | 2,872 | 7.1 km | 45.5 | 26% | 47% |
Health, work, housing and schools
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Against Co. Wicklow’s towns and Ireland’s towns. Each comparison is its own median: over Co. Wicklow’s towns of 2,500 or more and over 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 Bray’s residents
What is the population of Bray?
Bray had 33,512 residents at the 2022 Census, counted within its urban area, 3% more than 2016.
What is the average age in Bray?
The median age is 40.7, older than 83% of Irish towns. 22% are under 18 and 16% 65 or older.
How many people speak Irish in Bray?
37% of residents aged 3 and over can speak Irish (11,329 people), and 1.4% speak it every day outside education, against a typical 1.1% across Ireland’s towns.
How diverse is Bray?
81% describe themselves as White Irish (Ireland’s towns: 78%); 21% were born abroad and 13% are citizens of another country.
What religion are people in Bray?
64% are Catholic, 25% have no religion and 12% another religion; 5.8% didn’t say.
Is Bray good for families?
44% of households are parents with children (Ireland’s towns 43%), and 22% of residents are under 18. Schools near Bray are on its Schools page.
What is the median income in Bray?
Median gross household income in Bray was €64,120 in 2022, against €64,080 across Co. Wicklow 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).