The people of Clare are older than in most other counties, while they’re also more likely to have penalty points and less likely to have broadband.
That’s according to a suite of recently-released CSO figures which compare counties and regions with each other in dozens of different areas covering the economy, health, education, justice and more.
Clare FM’s James Mulhall reports.
While many of these findings are broadly in line with expectations, they do paint a picture of life in a largely rural county.
They show Clare has an older population than most areas, and that 10,900 people here live on their own, including 28% of all people aged 65 and over.
15,400 have a disability.
There are nearly 5,500 carers in Clare, and nearly 1,300 of them provide care for over 43 hours a week.
There is a high rate of male suicide here.
Class sizes here are smaller than the national average.
House prices here have been slower to rise than in many other areas, and over 15,000 homes don’t have broadband access.
One person in eleven here is not Irish, Clare drivers are amongst the most likely to have penalty points, but we do also have more room – if Clare had the same population density of Dublin then nearly 3.7 million people would be living in the Banner County.
