Minister for Rural and Community Development Michael Ring has this week launched the 2016 Pobal HP Deprivation Index which outlines areas of relative affluence or disadvantage across Ireland.
Commissioned by Pobal and completed by Trutz Haase and Jonathan Pratschke, the latest index is based on data from the 2016 Census.
Small towns (1,000 – 5,000 people) have been the worst affected over the past ten years, being disproportionately hit by the recession and benefitting less from the recovery than the most urban and the most rural areas.
In Donegal, the most affluent area was the Lough Eske area in South Donegal, which has an unemployment rate of 3.13% for males and 2.63% for females. Moreover, 41.94% of residents have attended third level education, with just a 0.18% population change between 2006 and 2016.
Other affluent Donegal areas included Castlewray, where 68% of residents hold third-level qualifications. The Ballymacool area of Letterkenny was also categorised as affluent, along with Corravaddy.
Areas considered ‘very disadvantaged’ include Arranmore Island, where the unemployment rate is 52% for males and 40% for females. Almost one in four (22%) of families on the island are lone parent families.
Other areas that have been deemed ‘very disadvantaged’ include; An Dúchoraidh, Straid (Inishowen), Carthage (Inishowen), Killygordon, Raphoe, and Killea.
Most of Donegal was considered ‘marginally below average’.
Source: Pobal.ie
Affluence is highest in the urban peripheries and gradually declines one moves towards rural locations, the index found.
Analysis of the index points towards the importance of proximity and access to urban centres as being of greatest importance for rural areas.
In relative terms, the geographic distribution of disadvantage and affluence remains largely the same. Reinforcing the findings of previous research, that disadvantage is a long term, geographically entrenched phenomenon.
Dublin has fared the best over the past 10 years, being less impacted by the effects of the recession, as well as disproportionately benefitting from the recent years of recovery.
To see how your area was categorised, you can visit the interactive map by following this link:
https://maps.pobal.ie/WebApps/DeprivationIndices/index.html
