Nearly 500 Travellers in Kilkenny – CSO - Ireland

From the Kilkenny People

The total number of Irish Travellers living in County Kilkenny at the time of last year’s census was 483, according to figures released last week.

Travellers thus accounted for 0.5% of the county’s population on census night, compared with 0.6% for the State as a whole. Of these, 252 were male and 231 were female.

County Galway had the highest Traveller population in the country, with 2,476 Travellers. South Dublin was next, with 2,216.

Travellers also tended to be much younger than the general population. More than half of Kilkenny’s Travellers (59.2%) were aged under 20, compared to 52.2% for the State as a whole.

Last week’s Census 2011 publication offered a profile of religions in Ireland along with more detailed results on ethnicity and Irish Travellers in particular.

It showed that the Travelling Community suffers from a much higher rate of joblessness than the rest of the population. Census 2011 showed that in Ireland as a whole, there were 9,973 travellers able to work, but they had an 84% unemployment rate. The full report is available on the CSO website at www.cso.ie/census.