Census 2012: Emigration has taken its toll, claims Ennis Mayor

WHILE the Banner County has experienced a population boom in the last number of years, the county’s capital town of Ennis has seen a decline, according to official figures released for the 2011 Census.
According to Ennis’ Mayor, Michael Guilfoyle, the growing numbers of people forced to emigrate has played a major part in the town’s changing population.
“Emigration has taken its toll on the town. Emigration to places such as Australia and Canada is a major contributory factor in the amount of people who no longer live in Ennis.
“I’m quite amazed that nobody has got any figures to show what is happening out there but, from my own experience, it is something that is having a major effect. Of the 24 players signed to Turnpike Rovers seven have left us in the last two and a half years,” he said.
“Also when the last census was done Ennis would have been home to many asylum seekers who we welcomed but they have since left, for instance when the hostel in town was closed down,” he said.
Mirroring similar trends in other areas such as Limerick and Cork, Ennis’s four urban areas have seen reductions in population by up to 31% while the surrounding rural area has seen a jump of 6.5%. Other places on the outskirts of Ennis’ boundaries have also seen rises in population. Doora’s population is up by 18.5% to 1873 while Clareabbey has seen an increase of 12% to 2922.
According to local auctioneer, Brian McMahon, during the building boom many new housing developments were built on the outskirts of the town that may also be a contributing factor to the census figures.
“There were an amount of developments built quite a few miles out of the town on the suburbs and we would have seen people moving out that way. In the inner Ennis area there would not have been as much development as on the outskirts,” he said.
Despite the decline in the town areas, Ennis is still among the most densely populated urban areas in the county.
According to the census the total population for the Ennis Rural electoral area was 17,359, a population change of 1,055 from the 2006 figure of 16,304.
Of the current population of the Ennis Rural area, 47.9% are men while 52.1% are female.
While the four Ennis urban electoral areas have seen varying amounts of decline in population. The total population for Ennis No 1 electoral district is 1,546, representing a drop of 9.8%, or an actual change of 168 people from the 2006 total population of 1,714. Men make up 47.5% of the Ennis No 1 district, with 52.5% women.
Ennis No 2 Urban saw an even greater reduction of 21.2%, with a population of 1,767, down 476 from the previous census. This breaks down to 50.4% of men and 49.6% of women.
The greatest population decrease, percentage wise, is seen in the Ennis No 3 Urban Area, with a total population of 256. This represents a population percentage change of 31.4% or an actual population change of 117 from the 2006 total population of 373. Of these 42.6% of the population is male and 57.4% female.
While Ennis No 4 Urban has a population of 1,396, down 12.4%, with 46.8% of the population male and 53.2% female.
The total number of permanent private housing units in Ennis also shows an urban/rural divide. While all four urban electoral districts show reductions, according to the census the total of units in the Ennis Rural area is 6387, up 13.8%.
Permanent private housing units in Ennis No 1 is down 3.7% from 2006; Ennis No 2 down 8.6%; Ennis No 3 shows the greatest reduction of 20.8% with Ennis No 4 down 2.6%.
The total number of vacant dwellings in Ennis No 1 is 115; in Ennis No 2, 249; Ennis No 3, 28 and Ennis No 4, 120. The Ennis Rural area has 7456 vacant dwellings.