500,000 more people in the greater Dublin area by 2021

CSO population trends: The population of the greater Dublin area, which also encompasses Meath, Kildare and Wicklow, will reach over two million by 2021, new projections released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) maintain.

The projections suggest that there will be 500,000 more people in the greater Dublin area by 2021.

The CSO report forecasts that within the next 15 years or so the population of Dublin and its surrounding three counties will account for more than 40 per cent of the projected five million people who will be living in Ireland by then.

The population projections suggest that counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow (the mid east) will be the fastest growing region in the country over the next 15 years or so. The population in these areas will grow by 51 per cent by 2021, according to the CSO.

The west, which takes in Galway city and county, Mayo and Roscommon will also witness major growth, the CSO has projected. It estimated that the population there will increase by 35 per cent by 2021.

The CSO maintained that growth in the mid east and the west will be fuelled by natural increases in the population as well as by international migration and as a result of internal movement of people from elsewhere in the country.

The CSO report forecasts that while there will be significant growth in the counties surrounding the capital, the percentage of the population of Dublin itself will fall slightly.

"The mid east will gain most (58,000) from internal migration over the projection period. Dublin is projected to lose out to other regions because of internal migration, with 112,000 more persons leaving the region than entering it".

"The mid west will also lose out, albeit on a smaller scale (-4,000) while all the other regions are projected to gain from internal migration flows", the report states.

The CSO report estimated that there will be more births than deaths recorded in all parts of the country.

However, the excess of births over deaths will be most pronounced in Dublin and the mid east region.

In Dublin it is forecast that there will be 197,000 more births than deaths while in counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow the figure will be 101,000.

However, because of the migration out of Dublin the percentage of the population in the capital will fall marginally from 29 per cent to around 28.4 per cent.

The report maintains that in 2002 there were 1.123 million people in Dublin and a further 413,000 in counties Meath, Kildare and Wicklow.

The report forecasts that the figure for Dublin will grow by 317,000 by 2021 while the population of the surrounding three counties in the mid east region will rise by 210,000 people.

Overall it suggests the population of the Greater Dublin Area will be 2,063,000 by 2021.

The report estimates that the population of the border region - Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo - will rise by 113,000 over the 2002 figure to 546,000 by 2021.

It projects that the midlands - Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath will see a population growth of around 71,000 bringing it to 296,000.

The population of the mid west - Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary will grow by 70,000 to reach 410,000.

The report estimates that there will be 114,000 more people in the south east, bringing the population to 537,000.

It forecasts that in the south west - Cork and Kerry - the population will increase by 124,000 to 705,000.

For the west, it estimates that there will be 133,000 more people, bringing the total to 513,000 by 2021.

The director of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Aebhric McGibney said the figures suggested the population of greater Dublin would now hit the two million mark 10 years earlier than had previously been forecast.

He said that county managers in the region would have to revise their plans for transport, housing and infrastructure to provide for the higher numbers.

He said that in particular Minister for Transport Martin Cullen must ensure that the full package of road, rail and bus developments including metro, Luas extensions, the rail interconnector and the southern port access route were delivered.