County Galway — Private renting — second in Ireland
Galway ranks second of Ireland's 26 counties for private renting rate at 20.4%. The national average is 18.0% — a gap of 2.4pp that places Galway near 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 Galway
Top electoral divisions — Rented in Galway
The electoral divisions within County Galway with the highest rented rate, Census 2022.
| Electoral Division | Rented Rate |
|---|---|
| 1. EYRE SQUARE | 63.8% |
| 2. St. NICHOLAS | 58.3% |
| 3. NUNS ISLAND | 47.6% |
| 4. MURROOGH | 45.7% |
| 5. MENLOUGH | 43.7% |
Explore Galway data on the map
Every electoral division in County Galway is mapped. Hover to inspect Census 2022 figures or ask the AI analyst for a plain-language explanation.
County Galway — what stands out
Why Galway looks the way it does
Galway's economy runs on two, related engines: education and med-tech. The National University of Ireland, Galway, founded in 1845, is the west of Ireland's main research institution, and its graduates feed directly into a med-tech sector that now employs roughly 10,000 people in Galway alone — about 40% of Ireland's entire med-tech workforce. Medtronic, Cisco, and SAP all run European operations from the city.
Galway is also a Gaeltacht city — both the city itself and the surrounding rural areas retain Irish-speaking communities — a cultural identity that coexists with, rather than being displaced by, the tech-sector growth.
Sources: Galway: Ireland's Thriving Med-Tech Capital · Galway — Gaeltacht — Údarás na Gaeltachta
County Galway — census data context
County-level figures aggregate all electoral divisions within Galway. The map reveals the internal variation those county averages suppress — the gap between the most and least deprived EDs in Galway is typically far wider than the county-to-national difference highlighted above. View the full Galway area guide →