Census 2012: Shannon bucks the trend of previous census

THE population of Clenagh, the electoral division that includes Shannon Town, had a population of 10,058 on census night last year.
This represented an increase of 2.7%, or 263 on Census 2006. It is also up by 1,002 or 11.1% on the 2002 census. The population density came to 361.77 people/km2.
Females were in a slight majority, with 5,056 (50.3%) compared to 5,002 males (49.7%).
There were 3,771 permanent private household units, an increase of 9.6% on the 3,441 recorded in 2006. There were also 394 vacant units.
In Drumline, the population stood at 852, an increase of 852 on the 741 recorded in 2006. It also reversed the trend seen in the last census, as there was actually a drop in population between 2002 and 2006.
The area’s population density was 61.56 people/km2. The male population were in the minority, with 409 males making up 48%. There was a female population of 443 or 52%.
The number of permanent private households stood at 274, an increase of 24% on the 2006 figure of 221. There were also 72 vacant dwellings.
Councillor Sean McLoughlin said he believed most of the vacant units were apartments.
“There’d be a lot of apartments. People are more inclined to want to live in apartments. It’s always been hard to get a house in Shannon to rent. The majority of places that are vacant are apartments but I know of three houses that are vacant, which the owners could let out if they had a mind to.”
He said that while a lot of young people had gone to Australia, quite a few have returned to Shannon.
“They’re all returning now for some reason or another and more seem to be staying. I don’t think there’s that much emigration at the moment but to preserve that, we need jobs, to keep the young people at home.”
Councillor Patricia McCarthy that there had been a few trends in local migration between the 2006 and 2011 censuses. “We would have had an increase in the number of migrants to the town and then we’ve had a fair bit of emigration out of it, so I suppose the fact that it’s holding stable with a slight increase is good.”
She also felt that most of the vacant properties in Shannon are apartments.
“Three hundred and ninety four is a lot of units and there are apartments in that. I would be concerned at the number of vacant dwellings at a time when there is a high demand for properties.
“A lot of people were buying investment properties in Shannon over the years and maybe that’s the reason for the vacancies. You’d need to know what the units are, because the word is that there is a scarcity of houses to rent, but not of apartments.”