Page 11 - Kilkenny County Council Corporate Plan 2019 - 2024

Profile of County Kilkenny

Socio-Economic Profile

Demographics
• The population of County Kilkenny grew by 4% between census years 2011 and 2016 from 95,419
to 99,232. This is marginally higher than the growth rate for the State (3.8%) over the same period.
• The average age of County Kilkenny’s population in 2016 was 37.9 years, compared to 36.6 years in
2011, marginally above the state average of 37.4 years. In 2016 Kilkenny’s average age of females
(38.5 years) was older than that of males (37.3 years).
• Dependency ratios are used to give an indication of the age structure of a population with young
(0-14) and old (65+) shown as a percentage of the population of working age (15-64). In 2016
County Kilkenny had an age dependency ratio of 56.5%. This was 3.8 percentage points higher than
the State (52.7% in 2016).

Chart 1 shows that the gender and five-year age group population structure of County Kilkenny
is almost identical to that of the State in 2016.

Educational Attainment

• The percentage of County Kilkenny’s adult population with primary education only, or no formal
education, decreased by 2.1% from 15.1% (9,196) in 2011 to 13.0% (8,125) in 2016; a figure similar
to the State (13.3% in 2016).
• The percentage of County Kilkenny’s population with third-level education increased by 4.9% from
26.8% (16,354) in 2011 to 31.7% (19,885) in 2016. This is 4.0 percentage points lower than the
State figure (35.7% in 2016).

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