County Donegal — Vacancy rate — first in Ireland
Donegal ranks first of Ireland's 26 counties for vacant dwellings rate at 25.7%. The national average is 10.9% — a gap of 14.8pp that places Donegal at the top of this ranking. Census 2022 data mapped at electoral division level shows the figure is not distributed evenly within the county.
Key statistics — County Donegal
Top electoral divisions — Vacant Dwellings in Donegal
The electoral divisions within County Donegal with the highest vacant dwellings rate, Census 2022.
| Electoral Division | Vacant Dwellings Rate |
|---|---|
| 1. ARDS | 64.9% |
| 2. ROSGUILL | 62.8% |
| 3. GREENFORT | 62.2% |
| 4. GLEN | 56.3% |
| 5. INISHKEEL | 55.8% |
Explore Donegal data on the map
Every electoral division in County Donegal is mapped. Hover to inspect Census 2022 figures or ask the AI analyst for a plain-language explanation.
County Donegal — what stands out
Why Donegal looks the way it does
Donegal was part of the historic province of Ulster, but the 1920 partition put it outside Northern Ireland — only Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Derry, and Tyrone became the six counties of the new jurisdiction. That left Donegal connected to the rest of the Republic by only a narrow land corridor; for most of the county, the fastest route to Dublin runs through Northern Ireland. Donegal's own natural hinterland — Derry city and West Tyrone — was cut off by the same border.
That geography has a measurable economic cost today, not just a historical one: Donegal's at-risk-of-poverty rate reached 22.4% in 2021, the highest of any Irish county, and the wider Border region's poverty rate has consistently run above the national average — a pattern researchers connect directly to the isolation partition created.
Sources: Donegal, a north-western fringe isolated by a border — CNES
County Donegal — census data context
County-level figures aggregate all electoral divisions within Donegal. The map reveals the internal variation those county averages suppress — the gap between the most and least deprived EDs in Donegal is typically far wider than the county-to-national difference highlighted above. View the full Donegal area guide →