Record number of third level graduates in Westmeath

The number of Westmeath people with third level educations has increased significantly in recent years.

That's according to new census figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which found that 26,200 (42%) of Westmeath people over the age of 15 had third level qualifications in 2022 compared to 20,600 (36%) in 2016 and 17,577 (32%) in 2011. Nationally 45% of people over 15 have a third level education.

While there are over 26,000 thousand Westmeath people with a third level qualification, 437 hold a PhD, which was 1.1% of all PhD holders in the country. When it comes to third level qualifications, Westmeath women (14,036) outdo their male counterparts (12,182).

Almost 16,900 people, or 27% of all those aged 15 and over, had completed their full-time education at upper secondary level. This was up from just over 16,400 people in 2016. Nationally, almost 867,400 people had completed their education at upper secondary level (26%).

Just over 8,800 people in the county in Census 2022 (14% of all those aged 15 and over) had completed their education at lower secondary level, compared with almost 8,700 people in Census 2016 who indicated they had done so. More than 446,000 people nationally had completed their education at lower secondary level (13%).

Gaelgoirí

The number of people (aged three and over) who could speak Irish in Westmeath increased by almost 1,400 to 33,598 in Census 2022. This was 39.1% of the county’s population aged three and over, compared with 38.9% 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 43% 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 Irish is spoken

The number of local people speaking Irish daily (within the education system only) fell slightly, from 10,516 in Census 2016 to 10,357 in Census 2022. There were 436 people speaking Irish daily (outside the education system only) compared with 512 people in 2016. The 1,691 people speaking Irish weekly (outside the education system only) was a slight decrease on the 1,700 people who did so in 2016.

Fluency

The Irish language question was expanded in Census 2022 to ask those who spoke Irish how well they spoke it. In Westmeath, 2,544 people who could speak Irish spoke it very well (8%), while 10,844 could speak it well (32%), and 19,111 people did not speak it well (57%). In Ireland overall, 10% of Irish speakers could speak the language very well with 32% speaking it well and 55% not speaking it well.