Census Profile · Mayo · 2022

County Mayo — Employment — #25 in Ireland

Mayo records one of the lowest employment rate figures in Ireland at 52.3%, against a national average of 56.1%. The gap reflects outward migration and a limited local employment base. Electoral division data shows the pattern is not uniform — certain EDs within Mayo diverge sharply from the headline county figure.

Mayo is -3.8pp vs national on employment rate.

Key statistics — County Mayo

Employment
52.3%
#25 of 26 counties
National Average
56.1%
employment rate
Owner-Occupied
72.8%
National: 65.9%
Unemployment
5.1%
National: 5.1%

Top electoral divisions — Employment in Mayo

The electoral divisions within County Mayo with the highest employment rate, Census 2022.

Electoral DivisionEmployment Rate
1. OWENNADORNAUN/BUNDORRAGHA 64.9%
2. BURREN 62.8%
3. CROSSBOYNE 61.3%
4. SLIEVEMAHANAGH 61.2%
5. CARAUN 59.9%

Explore Mayo data on the map

Every electoral division in County Mayo is mapped. Hover to inspect Census 2022 figures or ask the AI analyst for a plain-language explanation.

Employment — #25 in Ireland — Mayo map Employment — Mayo Housing — Mayo

County Mayo — what stands out

What stands out?
County Mayo has a notably high housing vacancy rate, ranking 4th nationally — 24.1% in Census 2022.
Why does it matter?
Housing vacancy is a barometer of housing demand and population pressure. A high rate signals supply vastly exceeding demand — whether from rural depopulation, seasonal use, or post-2008 ghost estates. A low rate signals the opposite: demand that supply cannot match, which directly drives rent and price inflation.
How does it compare nationally?
Mayo24.1%
National avg14.2%
Difference+9.9pp
Rank4 / 26
What's the likely explanation?
Mayo's high vacancy rate reflects decades of rural depopulation along the Atlantic seaboard — properties left empty as families moved east and overseas during the 20th century. The pattern is structural, not market-driven: demand is genuinely weak in many townlands, and the dispersed settlement of the county makes aggregated vacancy statistics look high even when individual villages are far from abandoned. Post-2020 remote working has drawn some reversal, particularly in coastal areas with strong broadband.

Why Mayo looks the way it does

Mayo's population history is dominated by one event. Before the Great Famine the county had 388,887 people; nine in ten Mayo households depended on the potato crop, and when blight destroyed it the county's population fell by around 29% to 247,830 through death and emigration. Emigration never really stopped after that — each subsequent census recorded a further decline, down to a low of 109,525 people by 1971, a fraction of the pre-Famine population.

The National Famine Memorial at Murrisk — a bronze "coffin ship" sculpture set against Croagh Patrick — marks that history directly in the county. It's the reason Mayo's population and demographic figures on this site read the way they do: this is a county still recovering, more than 175 years later, from a population collapse most other counties never experienced at the same scale.

Sources: The Great Famine in Co. Mayo

County Mayo — census data context

County-level figures aggregate all electoral divisions within Mayo. The map reveals the internal variation those county averages suppress — the gap between the most and least deprived EDs in Mayo is typically far wider than the county-to-national difference highlighted above. View the full Mayo area guide →

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Ireland census guides

→ Where to live in Ireland → Housing crisis by area → Home ownership rates → Education levels → Unemployment by area → Commuter towns → Deprivation map → Population growth
Data: CSO Census 2022 · County Mayo · Electoral Division averages · cso.ie/census