The west ‘facing death by a thousand cuts’

ANALYSIS of Central Statistic Office (CSO) figures from the past 20 years paint a picture of a rural Ireland with an increasingly ageing population and one haemorrhaging young people.

Looking at men living in rural areas, who are particularly vulnerable, figures show there are more than 100,000 single males between 25 and 44 living in the countryside — that is almost half of the total male rural population and an increase of more than 70,000 in 10 years.

Coupled with this, there has been a massive decrease in the number of 25 to 29-year-olds living in rural areas. In 1996, there were almost 400,000 living in the countryside, but despite a rising population trend overall, this decreased to 101,703 in 2006.