Working from home in Ireland — Census 2022
Census 2022 was the first Irish census to capture the full scale of the remote working shift. The proportion of the workforce working from home or a mix of home and office tripled from 2016, reshaping where people choose to live, how commuter towns are defined, and which rural counties are growing again.
Remote work in Census 2022 — key national figures
Remote work rates by county — Census 2022
Approximate share of workers who worked some or all of their hours from home in Census 2022.
| County | Approx. WFH Rate | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Dublin | ~31% | Professional services hub |
| 2. Wicklow | ~28% | Dublin commuter belt |
| 3. Kildare | ~25% | Dublin commuter belt |
| 4. Leitrim | ~24% | Rural remote adoption |
| 5. Roscommon | ~23% | Rural remote adoption |
| 6. Galway | ~22% | Tech sector & rural spread |
| 7. Clare | ~21% | Shannon business park area |
| 8. Cork | ~21% | Tech & pharma employers |
What remote work has changed
- Rural repopulation: The electoral divisions with the fastest population growth in Census 2022 relative to 2016 include areas in Leitrim, Roscommon, and west Galway where remote workers have relocated. This is the first time in decades that some of these areas have grown.
- Commuter belt redefined: The practical commuting zone for Dublin workers has expanded. In 2016, a Portlaoise or Mullingar commute was unusual. By 2022, the combination of flexible working and improved broadband infrastructure makes living 100km from Dublin genuinely viable for many professions.
- Housing market impact: The towns that saw the strongest remote-work in-migration between 2016 and 2022 also saw the largest increases in house prices and demand for larger homes (home offices). Carrick-on-Shannon, Roscommon town, and Strokestown are examples of this pattern.
- Urban office district impact: Dublin's docklands and city centre EDs saw reduced daytime population intensity — reflected in higher retail vacancy rates in adjacent areas. The Census does not directly capture this but employment and occupancy data at ED level shows the pattern.
- Sectoral concentration: Remote working in Ireland is heavily concentrated in professional services, tech, financial services, and pharma — the higher-income sectors. Retail, construction, agriculture, and hospitality workers cannot work from home. This creates a clear socioeconomic split visible in the Pobal deprivation scores of high-WFH EDs versus low-WFH EDs.
Where remote workers are choosing to live
The data shows two distinct patterns. The first is in the commuter belt — Wicklow, Kildare, Meath, and Louth workers who previously commuted daily but now only need to travel to Dublin two or three days a week. They remain in their existing homes or move slightly further out.
The second pattern is longer-distance relocation — workers who moved from Dublin or other cities to the west, northwest, or midlands. These workers chose areas with strong natural amenity (Leitrim, Sligo, Galway Bay), affordable housing, and increasingly adequate broadband. The National Broadband Plan rollout was a necessary precondition for this shift.
Explore work patterns on the map
IrelandInsights maps Census 2022 employment data for every electoral division. Switch to employment metrics to see how work patterns vary between EDs and counties.
Explore remote-work counties
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