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.

The west ‘facing death by a thousand cuts’

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.

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