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DONEGAL PEOPLE ARE most likely to remain living in the county of their birth, according to new data released from last year’s Census.

The finding is just one of a range of geographic and societal nuggets released by the Census today.

In a series of releases that focused on population distribution and movement, the Census also found almost two-thirds (62.7%) of people living in Ireland live in urban areas.

Of those who do live in an urban area, 44% are living in Dublin.

Drogheda remains the biggest town in Ireland with almost 41,000 people normally resident there. Just behind are Swords and Dundalk with under 40,000 people.

The figures also looked at how people move around the State and where they settle.

The Census found that Meath (65.1%) had the greatest proportion of residents who were born outside the county.

Counties within commuting distance of Dublin generally have larger proportion of people born outside the county, as the below map illustrates.

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The darker green areas have a larger proportion of people born in outside counties. 

Cork city and county has the lowest proportion of people living there who were from outside. Just 25% of people living in Cork city and county were born outside the county.

People from Donegal are the most likely to stay in their county with just 13% of people born there morally resident in another county.

Overall, 75% of Irish people live in the county of their birth.

Given Ireland’s large coastline, it’s also no surprise that a lot of Irish people live near the sea. In fact, 40% of Irish people are within 5km of the coast. Closer still are the 40,000 people who live within 100m of the sea.

Read: This chart shows the massive drop in housing supply compared to the Celtic Tiger years >

Read: This graph shows how housing supply has flatlined this decade – compared to population growth >