Swords in Co Dublin is the fastest-growing town in Ireland, while Galway is the fastest-growing city, according to the latest census statistics. And in central Dublin the boom in apartment building has produced unprecedented increases in population in some inner-city areas, the detailed district-by-district population statistics show.
Leitrim is the emptiest place in the State, with just 16 people per square kilometre. In contrast, the population density in Dublin city is 4,098 per square kilometre.
The latest figures confirm the overall patterns of increasing urbanisation and a growing concentration of population on the east coast which were apparent in the principal results of the census, published by the Central Statistics Office last month.
Census '96 - Population Classified by Area details the figures classified by sex for all the territorial divisions in the State: provinces, counties, county boroughs, towns, wards etc. The census was carried out on the night of April 28th last year.
Since the last census in 1991, the population of Swords has risen by one-quarter, from 17,705 to 22,314. Galway's population grew to 57,363, an increase of 12.8 per cent. The overall rise in the State's population over the same period was 2.8 per cent.
Other large towns which experienced rapid growth were Tralee (up 11.7 per cent) and Ennis (up 10.4 per cent). However, the biggest increases were recorded in the satellite towns around Dublin, such as Maynooth, Naas, Celbridge and Malahide.
Swords is now the ninth-largest settlement in the State, behind Bray and Drogheda but ahead of Tralee, Kilkenny and Sligo.
Only Dublin city and county and Kildare have a bigger population now than they did when the first census was carried out in 1841, before the Great Famine. Leitrim's current population is about a sixth of its pre-Famine level.
The detailed statistics track the population movements within Dublin. Suburbs such as Tallaght are now mature, with little population growth. A 68 per cent growth in the population of Glencullen, in the Dublin mountains, is probably attributable to the spread of bungalows.
Meanwhile, the long-term decline in the inner-city population has been spectacularly reversed in some areas. For example, the population of the North City ward has increased threefold in five years, while that of Arran Quay B has doubled. The increases are believed to be the result of the boom in apartment building in the city.
