The 2011 Pobal HP Deprivation Index

Area Profile for County Galway

Feline Engling

Trutz Haase

February 2013

1 Administrative Arrangements 1

2 Absolute and Relative Deprivation 1

3 Population 2

4 Demographic Characteristics 3

5 Education 3

6 Social Class Composition 4

7 Unemployment 5

8 Housing 6

9 How is the 2011 Pobal HP Deprivation Index constructed? 7

10 Interpretation of the 2011 Pobal HP Deprivation Index 9

11 Reading the Tables, Graphs and Maps 11

12 Substantive Findings 11

13 Publications 12

Key Profile for County Galway

This County Profile draws out some observations from a vast amount of available data. It is kept deliberately short, such as to draw attention to the most important findings only. The Pobal HP Deprivation Index scores presented in this report are based on the analysis carried out at the level of Small Areas (SA), the new census geography developed jointly by the Ordnance Survey of Ireland (OSI) and the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

Please note that the new HP Deprivation Index replaces all previously published data, as all data are computed in a consistent manner for the 2006 and 2011 census waves. Also note that the HP Index scores that are constructed from the SA-level analysis cannot be compared with those derived from an ED-level analysis as presented in the previous Area Profiles.

1 Administrative Arrangements

There are four Partnership companies operating within County Galway: Comhar na nOilean Teoranta, Forum Connemara Limited, Galway Rural Development Company and MFG. The County Childcare Committee area covers the entire county.

There are five Family Resource Centres (FRCs) operating in County Galway:

· Gort FRC is situated in the ED of Gort (27090) and services Gort and its surroundings. Its catchment area comprises 14 EDs.

· Loughrea Town FRC is situated in the ED of Loughrea Urban (27128) and services Loughrea town and its hinterlands. The catchment area includes 32 EDs in total.

· Ballygar FRC is situated in the ED of Killeroran (27144) and services a rural area in the North East of County Galway. Its catchment area comprises five EDs.

· Oughterard FRC is located in the ED of Oughterard (27159) and caters for the wider Oughterard area. Six EDs make part of this catchment area.

· Solas FRC is situated in the ED of Headford (27198) and services a rural area across the Galway-Mayo boundary. Its catchment area includes nine EDs.

2 Absolute and Relative Deprivation

· Overall, the West Region is the fourth most affluent region of Ireland, and County Galway is the second most affluent local authority area within the region. Like any other part of the country, County Galway has massively been affected by the economic downturn after 2007, reflected in the drop in the absolute deprivation score from -0.2 in 2006 to -7.0 in 2011. This represents a drop of 6.8, compared to a nationwide drop of 6.5. This also implies that the relative position of County Galway has remained stable and County Galway continues to be the tenth most affluent local authority area in Ireland in 2011.

· With regards to affluence and deprivation, County Galway is not characterised by particular extremes towards affluence of deprivation. Most (119) of the 214 EDs in County Galway are marginally below average, while 78 are marginally above average. Yet, there are some differences in the relative affluence and deprivation between various parts of the county. The most affluent parts in County Galway are situated in the wider environs of Galway City, with a particular affluent area to the West of the city. The most disadvantaged parts of the county are in its Western parts, broadly stretching from Inveran to Roundstone. Although to a lesser extent, there are also some disadvantaged areas in the East of the county, bordering County Roscommon.

· At a local level, the most disadvantaged EDs are Gorumna (-18.3), followed by Turlough (-15.1), Owengowla (13.7), Skannive (-13.6), Lettermore (-13.2), Camus (-12.5), Cloonkeen (-12.3), Illion (-11.5), Eyrecourt (-11.3), Templetogher (-10.5), Derrylaur (-10.3) and Inishbofin (-10.2) All of these 12 EDs fall into the ‘disadvantaged’ category.

· The most affluent EDs in County Galway are Clarinbridge (11.7), Barna (Pt.) (11.5), Galway Rural (Pt.) (11.4), Castletaylor (10.1) and Bencorr (10.1), all of which fall into the ‘affluent’ category.

· The catchment area of the Gort FRC has a (relative) index score of 0.3. Gort itself, with an index score of -4.1, is slightly more disadvantaged than the FRC catchment area as a whole.

· Similarly, the catchment area of the Loughrea Town FRC has an index score of 0.2, which is identical to the national average.

· The catchment area of the Ballygar FRC has an index score of -3.5. With an index score of -4.2 Killeroran itself is marginally more deprived than the catchment area as a whole.

· The catchment area of the Oughterard FRC has an index score of 1.2, which classifies the area as being marginally above the average.

· Similarly, the Solas FRC catchment area has an index score of 0.6, which is just marginally above the national average. Headford itself, with an index score of 4.0, is slightly more affluent than the overall catchment area.

3 Population

· Ireland has experienced a population growth of 30.1% over the past 20 years and the West Region has grown at a practically identical rate (29.9%). County Galway has experienced a growth of 35.2% over the same period. Since the economic decline, Ireland’s population has continued to grow by 8.2% between 2006 and 2011. County Galway’s population has grown by 10.0% over the past five years; thus maintaining its slightly higher than average growth.

· The fastest growing EDs are Killimor (44.5%), Cushkillary (40.7%) and Ballinderry (40.1%), all of which have experienced a near doubling of their population as it has typically been the case for the fastest growing areas in other counties.

· However, there also exists some significant population decline in County Galway, notably in Inishbofin (19.6%) and Coos (-18.4%).

· The Gort FRC catchment area counts about 3,000 households.

· The Loughrea Town FRC caters for a comparatively large area, including about 6,900 households.

· The Ballygar FRC catchment area is a comparatively small area and counts about 1,100 households.

· The Oughterard FRC catchment area comprises about 2,500 households.

· The Solas FRC caters for about 2,800 households.

4 Demographic Characteristics

· While there has been a continuous decline in the age dependency rate (the proportion of population under 15 years of age or over 64 as part of the total population) throughout Ireland in the period between 1991 and 2006, from 38.1% (1991) to 31.4% (2006), the ratio has again increased to 33.0% in 2011. An even greater decline applied to County Galway in the period between 1991 and 2006 (42.0% to 34.1%). In 2011 the age dependency rate for County Galway at 35.2% is marginally above the national average.

· Within County Galway, the age dependency rate is lowest in Cushkillary (20.1%) and Colmanstown (26.7%) but reaching almost 50 per cent in Cloonkeen (48.5%). Overall, the age dependency rate is exceeding 40 per cent in 22 predominantly rural EDs.

· The proportion of lone parents (as a proportion of all households with dependent children) in Ireland has exactly doubled over the past 20 years, growing from 10.7% in 1991 to 21.6% nationally in 2011. There are marked differences between urban and rural areas, and lone parent rates in the major cities are again up to twice the national average (e.g. Limerick City 37.5%). County Galway had a rate of 14.3% in 2011; well below the national average. Reflecting the urban-rural dichotomy within the county, Loughrea Urban (31.1%) and Tuam Urban (28.2%) have rates which are characteristic for more disadvantaged town areas. By contrast, there are 85 EDs with a lone parent rate below 10 per cent. This is indicative of the rural character of large areas of County Galway.

· The catchment area of the Gort FRC has experienced a population growth of 6.5% over the past five years, slightly below the national average growth of 8.2%. The age dependency ratio at 35.3% is marginally above the nationally prevailing one, while the proportion of lone parents at 13.7% is well below the national share.

· Loughrea Town FRC is situated in an area, which has grown by 10.3% over the last five years, compared to 8.2% nationally. The age dependency ratio (36.3%) is marginally above the national average, and the proportion of lone parents (15.5%) is slightly below the national average.

· The Ballygar FRC is located in an area, which has grown by 5.7% over the five-years-period. At 37.1% the age dependency rate is slightly above the national average. Lone parent households at 13.5% account for slightly fewer households than nationally.

· The Oughterard FRC catchment area has experienced a population growth of 8.2%, i.e. identical to the nationally experienced growth. The age dependency ratio (34.3%) is marginally above the national average. Lone parent families account for 13.3%, which is slightly lower than the national proportion.

· The Solas FRC is situated in an area, which has grown by 9.1% over the last five years. The age dependency ratio of 36.3% is marginally above the national ratio, while lone parent families at 12.5% are well below the national share.

5 Education

· There has been a continuous improvement in the level of education amongst the adult population over the past 20 years throughout Ireland. In 1991, 36.7% of the adult population had primary education only. This dropped to half that level (18.9%) in 2006 and even further to 16.0% in 2011. Between 2006 and 2011 the adult population with primary education only decreased by 2.9 percentage points. The rate for County Galway has fallen from 42.5% in 1991, to 22.1% in 2006, and 17.9% in 2011 and has thus come to closer resemble the nationally prevailing rate.

· Despite the considerable improvement at county level, there remain several rural EDs where still considerable parts of the adult population have primary education only. These are Gorumna (45.3%), followed by Turlough (44.0%), Cloonkeen (42.0%), Owengowla (41.6%) and Marblehill/Loughatorick (38.4%).

· The reverse applies with regard to third-level education, which has more than doubled over the past 20 years. In 1991, 13.0% of the national adult population had completed third level education. This grew to 30.5% in 2006, but increased by only another 0.1 percentage point to 30.6% in 2011. The proportion of County Galway’s population with third-level education has grown from 11.1% in 1991, to 28.3% in 2006 and 30.0% in 2011. This 20-year growth is marginally above that which has occurred nationally (18.9 percentage points compared to 17.6 percentage points nationally), albeit starting from a slightly lower level.

· At ED level, and again mirroring the situation with regard to the higher incidences of low levels of education, there are particularly low shares of population with third-level education in Cloonkeen (11.2%), Templetogher (11.4%), Gorumna (11.5%), Kiltullagh (12.1%) and Kilshanvy (12.4%), but none falling below the 10 per cent level.

· In the Gort FRC catchment area, the proportion with primary education only (17.3%) is marginally above the national rate (16.0%), whilst third-level education accounts for 28.7%, compared to 30.6% nationally.

· Similarly, the proportion of adults with primary education only in the Loughrea Town FRC catchment area accounts for 17.8% and third-level education accounts for 27.7%.

· In the Ballygar FRC catchment area, 22.3% of adults have primary education only, i.e. slightly more than national share. Complementary, 22.5% of adults have third-level education, which is slightly below the national average.

· The proportion of adults with primary education only in the Oughterard FRC catchment area (14.9%) is marginally below the national share. The share of adults with third-level education is at 36.5% is slightly higher than the national average of 33.0%.

· In the Solas FRC catchment area the proportion of adults with primary education only (18.1%) and the proportion of adults with third-level education (28.1%) are slightly below the national average.

6 Social Class Composition

· The changes in social class composition experienced throughout Ireland over the past 20 years largely parallel those in educational achievement, with a gradual increase in the number of professionals and an even greater decline in the proportion of semi- and unskilled manual workers. At the national level, the proportion of professionals in all classes rose from 25.2% in 1991 to 34.6% in 2011, whilst the proportion of the semi- and unskilled classes declined from 28.2% to 17.5% over the same period.

· In County Galway, the proportion in the professional classes (35.9%) and the proportion in the lower skilled professions (16.7%) mark a class composition marginally above the national average. Differences in the social class composition within the county reflect those of educational attainment, with Barna (Pt.) having the highest composition (60.8% professionals, 7.4% semi- and unskilled manual classes), and Illion having the lowest (17.5% professionals, 34.8% manual classes).

· In the Gort FRC catchment area, both the shares of professionals (35.8%) as well as the share of low-skilled workers (17.7%) are marginally above the national averages (34.6% and 17.5% respectively).

· In the Loughrea Town FRC catchment area the share of professionals (36.1%) is marginally higher than the national average, while the share of low-skilled workers (15.8%) is marginally below the national share.

· In the Ballygar FRC catchment area the proportion of professionals (30.8%) is marginally below the national average. The proportion of low-skilled workers (19.7%) is marginally above the national average.

· In the Oughterard FRC catchment area the proportion of professionals at 40.8% and low-skilled workers ay 14.7% mark a class composition slightly above the national average.

· In the Solas FRC catchment area professionals account for 35.8%, i.e. marginally above the national average. Low-skilled workers account for 15.1%, which is marginally below the national ratio.

The 2011 Pobal HP Deprivation Index