This article is from page 14 of the 2012-02-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
CLARE men on the look-out for love this St Valentine’s Day may have trouble finding a woman if new figures are anything to go by.
Preliminary figures from the 2011 census show that there are 10 per cent more men living in Clare than women.
The data shows that the male population of the banner county stands at 55 per cent. According to the census, Clare has a popualation of 116,885 which indicates that there are cur- rently just over 11,500 more men than women in Clare.
Men living in North East Clare may have the most trouble finding love with the figures indicating that the population there is 58 per cent male.
The statistic was revealed yesterday at a presentation on preliminary census data during a meeting of Clare County Council’s, Community and Enterprise, Tourism and Emergency Services Strategic Policy Committee (SPC).
Michael Neylon of the Council’s Community and Enterprise section described the finding as “surprising because the disparity in gender is very severe”.
He said the disparity between men and woman existed in nearly every part of Clare. The findings show that 45 per cent of Clare’s total population live in the ‘Golden Triangle’ in an area from Ennis town to Shannon and its extended environs including Newmarket on Fergus and Sixmilebridge.
The data shows that the most significant population changes have occurred around urban areas. Ennis’s population has decreased by around 860 people. However this has been offset by a boom (2000) in the amount of people in the town’s rural hinterland. Mr Neylon said a trend of population growth in areas around urban centres is evident across the county, particularly in Kilkee and Shannon.
The data also notes “significant” population growth around Bodyke and Feakle. Mr Neylon told the meeting that the number of people living in parts of Ennis (urban) had fallen by 20 per cent, in Kilkee by 22 per cent and Liscannor/Doolin by 12 per cent.
He said the “urbanisation pattern” now stretches almost continuously outward from Ennis to Scariff.
Cllr Pat Keane (FF) told the meeting that he had “major problem” with the manner in which census data is collected. He said the information is wholly dependent on the number of people in a house at a given time. He told the meeting that five buses on average leave West Clare every Sunday night to bring students to college.
He said census data is giving a “false reading of the population of West Clare”.