Figures published this week by the Central Statistics Office shows the population in Donegal Gaeltacht areas is growing, but they percentage of Irish speakers has fallen slightly.
Conversely, there’s been a marginal increase in the numbers who can speak Irish across the whole county.
The population of the Donegal Gaeltacht increased from over 23,300 to 24,220.
This included 23,554 people aged three and over, of whom 15,549 could speak Irish. The number of people who could speak Irish in the Donegal Gaeltacht fell by 2% between the censuses in 2016 and 2022.
The number of people speaking Irish daily within and outside the education system increased from 1,158 to 1,310. There were 4,443 people who spoke Irish daily outside the education system only, which was down from 4,771 in 2016.
The number of people aged three and over who could speak Irish in Donegal increased by almost 2,400 to 59,130 in Census 2022. This was 38.5% of the county’s population aged three and over, compared with 38.1% in Census 2016.
20% of people in Donegal said they spoke Irish very well, 32% said they spoke it well, and 46% did not speak it well.
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CSO analysis –
Irish speakers in Gaeltacht areas
The population of the Donegal Gaeltacht increased from over 23,300 to 24,220. This included 23,554 people aged three and over and of these 15,549 could speak Irish. The number of people who could speak Irish in the Donegal Gaeltacht fell by 2% between the censuses in 2016 and 2022.
The number of people speaking Irish daily within and outside the education system increased from 1,158 to 1,310. There were 4,443 people who spoke Irish daily outside the education system only, which was down from 4,771 in 2016. The number of people who spoke Irish weekly (outside the education system only) fell slightly to 1,476 from 1,540. The Irish language question was expanded in Census 2022 to ask those who spoke Irish how well they spoke it. There were 7,016 people who spoke Irish very well while 4,726 spoke it well and 3,493 did not speak it well.
Irish Speakers overall
The number of people (aged three and over) who could speak Irish in Donegal increased by almost 2,400 to 59,130 in Census 2022. This was 38.5% of the county’s population aged three and over, compared with 38.1% in Census 2016. Nationally, almost 1.9 million people could speak Irish, or 40% of all people aged three and over. This was up by more than 112,500 people since 2016 (+6%).
There were more female than male Irish speakers in the county, with 42% of females able to speak Irish compared with 35% of males. Females nationally were also more likely to be able to speak Irish than males, accounting for 55% of all Irish speakers.
Where People Spoke Irish
The number of people speaking Irish daily (within the education system only) fell, from 18,305 in Census 2016 to 17,215 in Census 2022. There were 5,819 people speaking Irish daily outside the education system, compared with 6,187 people in 2016. The 4,331 people speaking Irish weekly outside the education system was a slight increase on the 4,188 people who did so in 2016.
Fluency in Speaking Irish
In Donegal, 11,621 people who could speak Irish spoke it very well (20%), while 18,937 could speak it well (32%), and 27,122 people did not speak it well (46%). In Ireland overall, 10% of Irish speakers could speak the language very well with 32% speaking it well and 55% not speaking it well.
