The latest Central Statistics Office (CSO ) report on households and families provides some interesting statistics concerning Westmeath.
This report examined the family situations and living arrangements of the Irish population in April, 2016. It provides a wealth of information and analysis on topics such as marital status, same sex civil partnerships, and the different types and sizes of family composition and households.
One of the more striking statistics shows that at the time of the census 39.6 per cent of people aged 15 and older living in the county were single. On first glance it would appear a startling figure, however, it actually comes in slightly below the national average, which stands at 41.1 per cent.
Added to this, a further 32,305 people (46.8 per cent ) were recorded as married (first time ) compared to 46 per cent nationally, meaning Westmeath is scoring higher than many counties.
The report also showed the number of families increased by 960 on the 2011 figure, with a recorded total of 23,234 families on Census night.
The number of children per family remained unchanged at 1.38 children since the 2011 census.
There were 1,136 remarried persons in the county. Males were much more likely to remarry after divorce, with 41.6 per cent doing so compared to just 31.1 per cent of females. The number of divorcees increased by 355 to 2,014 and accounted for 2.9 per cent of those single aged 15 and older.
The 3,611 widowed persons comprised 5.2 per cent of those single aged above 15 years.
Census 2016 marked the first time that this relationship category was recorded in an Irish census, following the enactment of civil partnership legislation. There were 48 people in this category in County Westmeath, and 4,226 in the State overall.
