Hopestown looking hopeful in census returns

THERE are more of us in the State than ever before, we are less likely to emigrate and if we do we are more likely to return to Kerry or Kildare than Dublin. And we don't seem to mind living in places with strange names.

This is the first result from the statistical snapshot of the State taken on April 28th, when the State carried out its 13th census of population. It cost £8 million, involved knocking on 1.2 million doors and it will take another year to number crunch the results.

The population is over 3.6 million for the first time in the history of the State and, for the first time in almost two decades, the population haemorrhage of emigration reversed itself and gave us 3,200 more inhabitants.

But the first report by the Central Statistics Office on the 1996 census is also a treasure chest for the trivia junkie. Did you know, for example, things are looking up in Hopestown? With 468 inhabitants, the Westmeath district has 31 more residents than it did in 1991. Meanwhile there are two fewer in Fews - 226 inhabitants in the Waterford town compared to 228 five years ago.

Overall there were more women than men in the State, 25,843 more to be exact on the night of April 28th. Yet Ladytown, Co Kildare, has 230 males compared to 229 females, while Lady's Island in Wexford has only 252 women compared to 276 men. However, in Nun's Island, Co Galway, women outnumber men by 221.

Males still outnumber females in the two Mountjoy districts of Dublin, where the prison governor is responsible for filling out the census form in his "household." Mountjoy A showed a population drop of 12 per cent while Mountjoy B increased by 4.3 per cent.

And strange place names did not seem to suffer any population decline. Ballyseedy near Tralee, Co Kerry, gained 61 in the head count, while nearby Ratass gained 36. In Galway, Wormhole increased its population by 113 and two more people lived in Nobber, near Kells, Co Meath, than in 1991.

However, despite its rebirth as Ballykissangel, Ireland's premier television tourist spot, Avoca, Co Wicklow, lost 67 people, or almost 10 per cent of its population in the last five years. But Glenroe (the real one in Co Clare) gained seven extra people.

Yesterday, the CSO director, Mr Gerry O'Hanlon, described the report as an initial headcount. The whys and wherefores explaining the results will be available to trivia hunters next year.