By Dara Bradley

Galway City is officially the singletons capital of Ireland while County Galway has more married people than anywhere else in the country.

A new report has found that Galway City has the highest proportion of single people living here compared with every other city and county in the country.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) report noted that 63% of the population of Galway City was single, compared with the next highest, Dublin (60%) and Cork (58%).

The report, from information gleaned from the Census 2011 results conversely found that County Galway has the highest proportion of married people (40.3%), just ahead of Roscommon (40.2%) and Meath (40%).

Dublin and Galway cities had the lowest percentage of married people.

The CSO report, ‘Households and Families – Living’ explained the differences in marital status in Galway City and County through age and geographical location.

The underlying age structure in Galway City – it has a younger population – has helped increase the proportion of single people. “Younger counties tend to have more single people while older counties have more married and widowed people,” the report said.

It also found that married people tend towards rural areas, which helps explain the large proportion of married couples in County Galway.

Read more in today’s Connacht Sentinel