Residents of the Longford-Westmeath constituency are more likely to have left education earlier and with fewer qualifications than the national average, and are more likely to get married or to own a house or a car.
A detailed profile of the population of Longford-Westmeath was released this week, based on the most recent census which took place in April 2006.
Perhaps the most shocking statistics are in the area of education, with the report revealing that Longford-Westmeath’s men and women finish their education earlier and with fewer qualifications than in the rest of the country.
Approximately 52 per cent of men completed their education at age 17 or below, compared to 50 per cent of men in the State as a whole. While nationally 23 per cent of men finished their education aged 21 years or above, only 19 per cent of Longford-Westmeath men did.
Local women are also less likely than women elsewhere to have continued their education past the age of 20.
The constituency enjoys an above average marriage rate of 50.7 per cent versus the national 48.8 per cent, and there are slightly fewer single mother families in Longford-Westmeath than the national average.
In terms of employment, the share of the Longford-Westmeath workforce in manufacturing and construction occupations was reported as being above the national average.
The total number of people at work in Longford-Westmeath at the time of the census was 46,729. As expected with a mainly rural constituency, there was a higher than average share of its workers in agricultural occupations. It also has a higher than average share of workers in construction and manufacturing occupations, by 2.3 and 0.9 percentage points respectively. Some 17.3 per cent of workers were self-employed, slightly higher than the national average. We were also more likely to own a car and use it for daily commuting.
People in Longford-Westmeath are slightly more likely to participate in a voluntary organisation than the national population. A total of 13,688 people in the constituency volunteer for at least one activity, more likely to be sporting than a social or charitable organisation.
Although householders in Longford-Westmeath are more likely then others around the country to own their own home, they are less likely to have access to a computer (52.2 versus 56.6 per cent ) or the internet. Moreover, internet access is much less likely to be via broadband.
Finally, the census report threw up some interesting statistics regarding our participation in politics. Turnout in the 2007 General Election was below the national average. While a total of 83,980 people were registered to vote at the last election in Longford-Westmeath, the turnout was 55,529 people or 66.1 per cent of those registered.
There also appear to be more people on the register than are eligible to vote, a problem nationally with the electoral register, but which appears to be more acute in Longford-Westmeath.
