Almost 13 percent of Clare’s population is living with at least one disability.
New figures from the CSO’s census profile reveal there has been a rise of almost 600 in the number of people here who consider themselves disabled since 2011.
In 2011, the 14,775 people with at least one disability comprised 12.6% of Clare’s population.
Last year’s Census revealed this shot up to 15,369 people with at least one disability making up 12.9% of the county’s population.
Of these, 7,481 were male and 7,888 were female.
It’s slightly below the national level of disabilities, where these people account fo 13.5 percent of the general population.
In Clare, 6,988 people stated that they had difficulty with pain, breathing or any other chronic illness or condition, while 1,275 indicated they had a serious visual impairment and 2,467 had a serious hearing impairment.
Some areas in the county have a higher number of people living with disabilities than others.
The biggest percentage was seen in the Kilrush Urban electoral division, where 599 people – almost a quarter of the population – said they had a disability.
A further 386 people said the same in the Ennistymon division, 331 in Killaloe and 280 in Ennis Urban.
Meanwhile, the Census also revealed there are almost 5,500 carers in Clare now – an increase of nearly 180 on the 2011 figure.
