Photo: David Purchase · CC BY-SA 2.0Work, pay and getting to work in Shillelagh
Unemployment in Shillelagh stood at 11% at the 2022 census (the middle of Irish towns: 9.2%). People heading out of Shillelagh for work or study spend 30.7 minutes travelling on average; 15% spend 60 minutes or longer. No Jobs & income Grade is given to Shillelagh: it has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts.
The work figures that set Shillelagh apart
Lower incomes than most towns
The median household in Shillelagh had €47,670 a year before tax in 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760. CSO publishes no income figure for this place, so this one is our estimate from its electoral divisions. Household income ↓
Longer trips than most towns
Trips to work, school or college take 30.7 minutes on average, against 27.6 in the middle of Irish towns; 15% 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.
Work and pay in Shillelagh, ungraded
Shillelagh has under 1,000 residents, where the grade starts. The figures on this page are still its own.
Shillelagh households: €47,670 a year at the median
Before tax, 2022; the middle of Irish towns is €57,760.
Shillelagh’s median is 26% below County Wicklow’s (€64,077). Every town of 2,500 or more in the county has a higher median. After tax, the median is €43,100. Across Ireland the median household has €60,123, 26% above Shillelagh’s.
CSO Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2022: median gross household income, from tax and welfare records linked to Census households.
The trip to work or school is longer from Shillelagh than in the middle of Irish towns
Under 15 minutes: 42% of trips, next to 36% in the middle of County Wicklow. 3 of the 9 towns of County Wicklow counted have a shorter average 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.
What residents of Shillelagh work in
Professional services, health and education is the second-largest at 22%, against 25% across Irish towns; the smallest of the seven is public administration, at 1.9%.
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.
Working-age people in Shillelagh: 66% have a job
Of the 9 other places of 2,500 people or more in County Wicklow, 3 have a smaller share of 15-to-64s in work.
4.5% of everyone aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more. Put another way, 69% of the unemployed had been out of work for a year or more. Of all residents aged 15 and over, retirees and students among them, 51% 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.
Not by car: 13% of Shillelagh’s commuters walk, cycle or ride the bus or train
The middle of Irish towns has 6% going by bus; here it is 0.7%. On foot and by bike, commuting here is much as in the middle of Irish towns. Most go by car or van: 78% of commuters.
Census 2022 (CSO SAPS), means of travel to work.
The monthly count of people signing on in County Wicklow
4,688 people were signing on in County Wicklow in September 2026. Set against a year before, the count in September 2026 rose by 3%. For 49 months in a row now, it has been under its 2019 average. Its lowest month since 2019 was November 2024, at 4,389. County Wicklow saw its highest month in July 2020: 6,173 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. 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).
In Shillelagh, 51% of adults are in work
Compared with Irish towns, 6.8% 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.
Everyday places within walking distance in Shillelagh
Not graded: the Walkability grade starts at 1,000 residents.
Of the everyday places, a pharmacy is the one the fewest residents have within 800 m (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 Shillelagh compares with the places nearby
| Town | In work, 15–64 | Unemployment | Income | Average trip | Jobs | Walk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shillelagh | 66% | 11% | €48K | 30.7 min | — | — |
| Carnew 5.4 km | 58% | 15% | €45K | 26.4 min | D− | D |
| Tinahely 7.9 km | 64% | 9.5% | €49K | 29.1 min | C | C+ |
| Bunclody 13.5 km | 65% | 15% | €44K | 24.5 min | C− | C |
| Tullow 14 km | 64% | 12% | €47K | 25.1 min | C | C |
| Rathvilly 17.7 km | 66% | 9.3% | €53K | 34 min | C | D− |
| Ferns 18.4 km | 61% | 14% | €43K | 26.3 min | D | B+ |
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 Shillelagh, 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 Shillelagh
What is the unemployment rate in Shillelagh?
11% of the labour force was out of work at the 2022 census, against 9.2% in the middle of Irish towns. 4.5% of people aged 15 and over had been out of work for a year or more.
How do people in Shillelagh get to work?
78% of commuters go by car or van, 9.9% walk, 2.6% cycle and 0.7% take the bus or train. On census day 2022, 8.6% worked mainly from home.
How long is the commute from Shillelagh?
Trips to work, school or college take 30.7 minutes on average; 15% take an hour or more and 42% under a quarter of an hour.
How many jobs are there in Shillelagh?
Ireland doesn’t publish a count of the jobs based in each town. What the census does say is what Shillelagh’s residents work at, wherever their job is: see What residents work in.
Where do people in Shillelagh 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 Shillelagh 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).