A chara, – In his article on the first published volume of the 2011 population census (Front page, March 30th), Carl O’Brien reports that both Limerick and Cork cities lost population in the period since the previous census in 2006. This refers to the legally defined boundaries of these cities and fails to take account of the fact that there has been extensive overspill of both these cities beyond these boundaries.
In 2006, over one third of the Cork urban area (ie 71,000 people) lived outside the official city boundary. In the case of Limerick, the level of overspill was even higher, at 42 per cent (38,000 people), although this was reduced to 35 per cent by a subsequent minor boundary change.
Growth in the overspill areas since 2006 means that the overall population of both cities increased in the interim, by an estimated 4 per cent of the case of Cork and 1.5 per cent in the case of Limerick (based on the preliminary census results published in 2011).
Such overspills are the norm for Irish towns and cities, and render their “official” populations meaningless for analytical and policy-making purposes. The failure of successive Irish governments to adjust urban boundaries in line with population growth is just one example of the dysfunctionality which permeates our political system. – Is mise,
.