Talk:List of settlements on the island of Ireland by population

Re-design article
I humbly suggest there be a re-design of this page to bring it into line with the List of settlements in Northern Ireland by population and *List of towns in the Republic of Ireland by population, i.e. get rid of the picture and info blurb and add the growth rate since the last time measured. - 86.44.149.247 (talk) 11:45, 14 August 2012 (UTC) Also Coleraine is listed as County Tyrone when it is in fact County Derry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GazDoc82 (talk • contribs) 14:38, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Figures
Are the NI figures correct? It says they're from the census, but they're very different from the figures here: *List of settlements in Northern Ireland by population. Can someone shed light on this? Also, the ROI figures are outdates, I'm adding a template reflecting that. - 86.44.149.247 (talk) 11:53, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

The city of derry/Londonderry has a metro area population o 237,000 people, it is officially the fourth largest settlement on the island of ireland. It is important to note that the two jurisdictions have different methods of measuring populations, the Republic of Ireland being very generous on 'urban' area boundaries. It is misleading to rank limerick as the third largest settlement in Ireland. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.17.4.176 (talk) 00:43, 19 December 2015 (UTC)

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Tallaght
Why is the county town of South Dublin County conspiciously absent? The population from the last 3 censuses would pit it's population at around the size of Limerick. Jcully (talk) 20:53, 30 December 2017 (UTC)

Missing Ballincollig
The largest town in county Cork Pop 18,621 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballincollig Tcla75 (talk) 19:28, 17 December 2018 (UTC)

Update Northern Ireland town populations
I've reconciled populations of NI towns with now revised List of localities in Northern Ireland by population. This may address some of the concerns raised in previous sections of this Talk page. All figures per UK Census 2011, per NISRA. But leaving Belfast and Derry as is, they use other data in their articles. For updated (and lesser) Lisburn figure, see Talk:Lisburn and Census 2011 (Usual Resident Population). Previous figure was a 2001 figure for Lisburn Urban Area. Holywood dropped from list in favour of now more populous Cookstown. Declangi (talk) 09:03, 4 September 2019 (UTC)

What does the bold text mean?
There's no explanation of why certain towns are bolded. 72.252.32.125 (talk) 21:37, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Settlements in bold have city status. I've now added a sentence explaining this. Declangi (talk) 00:53, 12 September 2022 (UTC)

Messy figures - Sep 2023
This article is all over the place regarding population figures (Dublin 592,713 vs Derry 237,000). It needs a cleanup but in general it needs a purpose. 23stat23stat (talk) 10:29, 8 September 2023 (UTC)
 * I agree about the inconsistency among the list's top cities. I think the list should aim to cover settlements without gaps or overlaps, using a consistent methodology. Currently it looks like Derry is almost half the size of Dublin!
 * With Dublin as an example: the population listed is that for "Dublin city" the administrative unit, one of four from the former County Dublin (along with Fingal, Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown and South Dublin). But the "Dublin city" unit excludes places not listed here like Tallaght, Dún Laoghaire etc, i.e. a gap in coverage. I think the unit to use is CSO's "Dublin city and suburbs" ("Urban" at the article), population 1,263,219, from CSO's towns population table. That unit includes places like Tallaght and Dún Laoghaire but excludes places like Swords and Balbriggan (which are listed in this article).
 * Similarly for Cork, not the Metro, but "Cork city and suburbs" should be used from the same CSO table (excludes Carrigaline and Cobh, both listed here). For Northern Ireland, Metro Derry goes a long way out (even into east County Donegal), so I think the 85,279 figure is the one to list here. Belfast I'm less clear about, though again I don't think the Metropolitan area figure should be used, being less well-defined and includes places like Newtownabbey and Lisburn, which have their own entries in this list, i.e. would be overlap in coverage. Maybe the Local Government District is the comparable one there.
 * Overall I feel that Metro/Greater areas should not be used at all and that the CSO towns table is the way to go for the Republic. Declangi (talk) 23:31, 13 September 2023 (UTC)

What population figures do we use for Dublin? Urban or capital city?
I personally think capital city but no one seems to agree. We need to make a decision so this doesn't end up an edit war Nintentoad125 (talk) Nintentoad125 (talk) 21:05, 9 September 2023 (UTC)


 * The urban is better for two (perhaps related) reasons:
 * this is a list of settlements by population, not administrative areas by population;
 * while the administrative area of Dublin city is precisely defined, that's not the case with most of those in the list here. If we're otherwise using the 2022 CSO figures for each settlement, we should do so too in the case of Dublin.
 * Iveagh Gardens (talk) 08:51, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

Regarding the population of Derry
Please stop using the urban population of Derry. The Derry urban area includes Derry City, Culmore, New Buildings and Strathfoyle, which are all 4 different settlements and therefore do not qualify as one settlement on this list. Nintentoad125 (talk) 16:19, 12 October 2023 (UTC)


 * Could it not be simplified somehow, or perhaps another solution? The lead says "The population figures listed are for the urban area around each settlement excluding areas that fall within the boundary of another town or city", while sensible to one person to another this might suggest the actual recognised "x Urban Area"'s population is being changed. Perhaps include an extra column for the urban aera? Kathleen&#39;s bike (talk) 16:27, 12 October 2023 (UTC)

Newbridge described as largest town in County Kildare, but Naas listed with a higher population?
Newbridge described as largest town in County Kildare, but Naas listed with a higher population? 80.111.213.234 (talk) 15:25, 8 June 2024 (UTC)


 * Newbridge was the largest town in Kildare before the most recent census, which saw Naas become larger. I have changed the article to reflect this. - 🇮🇪 Signed, Nintentoad125 👻 (Talk to me! 🗣️) 13:47, 9 June 2024 (UTC)