County Cork — Unemployment — #26 in Ireland
Cork records one of the lowest unemployment rate figures in Ireland at 4.1%, against a national average of 5.1%. The gap reflects a highly active labour market relative to most Irish counties. Electoral division data shows the pattern is not uniform — certain EDs within Cork diverge sharply from the headline county figure.
Key statistics — County Cork
Top electoral divisions — Unemployment in Cork
The electoral divisions within County Cork with the highest unemployment rate, Census 2022.
| Electoral Division | Unemployment Rate |
|---|---|
| 1. MAYFIELD | 10% |
| 2. St. PATRICK'S B | 9.9% |
| 3. FARRANFERRIS A | 9.6% |
| 4. THE GLEN A | 9.6% |
| 5. KNOCKNAHEENY | 9.3% |
Explore Cork data on the map
Every electoral division in County Cork is mapped. Hover to inspect Census 2022 figures or ask the AI analyst for a plain-language explanation.
County Cork — what stands out
Why Cork looks the way it does
Apple has operated in Cork since 1980, when its Hollyhill campus opened with 135 employees; it now employs over 6,000 people there and is Apple's largest site anywhere outside Cupertino. That single relationship anchored decades of follow-on investment: Cork now hosts roughly 190 multinational firms across pharmaceuticals, technology, cybersecurity and financial services — including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Dell — employing close to 45,000 people in total.
A collaborative business environment, available skills, and Ireland's corporate tax and grant strategy are the usually-cited reasons multinationals chose Cork specifically rather than elsewhere in Ireland; once Apple was established, the cluster effect did much of the rest.
County Cork — census data context
County-level figures aggregate all electoral divisions within Cork. The map reveals the internal variation those county averages suppress — the gap between the most and least deprived EDs in Cork is typically far wider than the county-to-national difference highlighted above. View the full Cork area guide →