Town comparison · Ballincollig vs Mallow

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Ballincollig or Mallow?

Both towns measured at town level, not the wider Eircode area, on the same 52 figures: prices, schools, amenities, social life, commute, affluence and safety.

Ballincollig, Co. Cork City · P31 · 2,491 people | Mallow, Co. Cork · P51 · 12,934 people

Ballincollig is the stronger town on the data. It leads on 4 of the 7 dimensions to Mallow’s 2, with 1 level.

Ballincollig leads on
affluenceeducation levelspublic transportaccess to its nearest city
Mallow leads on
schools & amenitiesaffordability
231118

Ballincollig aheadlevel or not comparableMallow ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
BallincolligMallow
iBallincollig sits in P31, Mallow in P51. Each figure below is tagged with the geographic level it’s actually measured at. The town ahead on a row is the one in green. Scores and percentages are charted against a true 0 to 100 scale; every other row is charted against the larger of the two towns, so the bars compare but don’t imply a ceiling.
!Ballincollig is a city suburb — its boundary follows the postal area (the Small Areas whose addresses carry the name), not an official settlement line, so it can run broader than the local core and the figures cover that wider postal patch.

Outlines are each town’s CSO Small Areas — the exact footprint every figure is measured over.

Ballincollig
Mallow

Size

TOWN · census

Resident population at the 2022 CSO census, summed over the Small Areas that make up each town. Not scored: a bigger town isn’t a better one, it just explains why the counts below differ.

2,491
Population
12,934

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€425k
Median sale pricelower is better
€273k
Mallow leads
€339k – €470k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€200k – €340k
325
Sales (24m)
525
+8.0%
Price momentum (YoY)
-2.2%
21.2%
New-build share
8.4%

Schools, health & amenities

TOWN · counts

Facilities in and around each town — each counted once, for the town it’s closest to. Bigger towns naturally score higher — read alongside population.

3 prim · 3 sec
Schools
7 prim · 3 sec
Mallow leads
Ballincollig · 6 schools (largest first)
Coláiste Choilm Secondary
1,364 pupils · 75% to 3rd-level · INTER DENOMINATIONAL
Ballincollig Community School Secondary
980 pupils · 75% to 3rd-level · INTER DENOMINATIONAL
Le Cheile Secondary School Ballincollig Secondary
195 pupils · 60% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Gael Scoil Ui Riordain Primary
731 pupils · Catholic
Scoil Naomh Mhuire C Primary
447 pupils · Catholic
S N Naomh Eoin B Primary
391 pupils · Catholic
Mallow · 10 schools (largest first)
Davis College Secondary
1,010 pupils · 50% to 3rd-level · MULTI DENOMINATIONALDEIS
St Mary's Secondary School Secondary
758 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Patrician Academy Secondary
570 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Scoil Ghobnatan Primary
497 pupils · CatholicDEIS
Gael Scoil Thomais Daibhis Primary
409 pupils · Catholic
Convent Girls Senior National School Primary
249 pupils · Catholic
S N Naomh Padraig Boys Senior School Primary
209 pupils · Catholic
Mallow Community National School Primary
204 pupils · Multi Denominational
S N Iosagain Primary
143 pupils · Catholic
S N Rathain Primary
105 pupils · Catholic
8
Creches
15
Mallow leads
6
GP practices
3
Ballincollig leads
6
Pharmacies
5
Ballincollig leads
0
Hospitals
2
Mallow leads
14
Bus stops
8
Ballincollig leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
1
Mallow leads
13
Gyms & leisure
12
Ballincollig leads
1
Parks & playgrounds
7
Mallow leads
14
Sports pitches
24
Mallow leads

Social life

TOWN · counts

Places to eat, drink and go out in and around each town — each counted once, for the town it’s closest to. The residents per venue row is the fairer read — raw counts just track town size, so a big town wins by being big.

14
Restaurants
11
Ballincollig leads
10
Cafés
8
Ballincollig leads
5
Pubs & bars
11
Mallow leads
8
Takeaways
4
Ballincollig leads
0
Nightclubs
1
Mallow leads
1
Cinema & theatre
1
66
Residents per venuelower is better
359
Ballincollig leads

Ballincollig is a small town and Mallow is a large town, so their national rankings aren’t like-for-like — each is ranked only against places of its own size. Compare them on the residents-per-venue row instead.

Day-to-day

TOWN · counts

The errands you run without thinking about them. Same caveat — read the residents-per-service row alongside the counts.

8
Supermarkets
6
Ballincollig leads
3
Convenience shops
4
Mallow leads
3
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
2
Ballincollig leads
4
Banks
4
1
Post offices
2
Mallow leads
20
Hairdressers
11
Ballincollig leads
4
Dentists
0
Ballincollig leads
2
Vets
0
Ballincollig leads
2
Filling stations
7
Mallow leads
2
EV charging
4
Mallow leads
3
Library & community centre
4
Mallow leads
48
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
294
Ballincollig leads

Commute by car

TOWN · from centre

Drive time from the town centre to each city centre — typical off-peak, with an estimated weekday rush hour. OSRM road routing.

13m · ~20 rush
Corklower is better
32m · ~55 rush
Ballincollig leads
93m · ~110 rush
Limericklower is better
60m · ~80 rush
Mallow leads
115m · ~130 rush
Waterfordlower is better
109m · ~125 rush
Mallow leads
163m · ~185 rush
Galwaylower is better
130m · ~155 rush
Mallow leads
185m · ~220 rush
Dublinlower is better
170m · ~205 rush
Mallow leads

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
4
Affluence (Pobal HP)
-5.1
Ballincollig leads
Ballincollig · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
+3BallincolligAbove average
+5BallincolligAffluent
Mallow · 6 EDs, poorest → richest
-13Mallow South UrbanDisadvantaged
-9Mallow South UrbanDisadvantaged
-6Mallow North UrbanBelow average
-3Mallow RuralBelow average
-2Mallow North UrbanBelow average
-2Mallow RuralBelow average
48.6%
Third-level educated
34.7%
Ballincollig leads
47.0%
Professional class
31.7%
Ballincollig leads
6.9%
Unemploymentlower is better
12.4%
Ballincollig leads
72.5%
Owner-occupier
59.6%
Ballincollig leads
17.7%
Private rental
22.1%
7.6%
Social housing (LA)
14.3%

Liveability & safety

AREA · P31 / P51

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (Ballincollig → P31, Mallow → P51); safety & crime are the Cork North Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

72/100
Quality of Life
64/100
Ballincollig leads

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (P31 / P51) from official data — Garda crime, CSO income & census, OPW flood, EPA water, and transport/healthcare/broadband coverage. Refreshed quarterly. The dashed line is each town’s overall score (that average) — dimensions to its right beat the average, to its left fall short. Two towns can share a score with a very different mix.

BallincolligMallowOverall (avg)
Safety72566456
Affordability7199
Infrastructure6157
Family8382
Education6941
Environment8466
Economic8249
020406080100020406080100
#4
National ranklower is better
#58
Ballincollig leads
#2
County ranklower is better
#12
Ballincollig leads
56/100
Safety
56/100
67
Crime / 1,000
67

Affluence range

Pobal HP deprivation index, published per Electoral Division, so the spread shows the town’s poorest to richest ED. A town that is a single ED shows one mark, no range.

Ballincollig Affluent+4.0
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Ballincollig +3 (least affluent) → Ballincollig +5 (most affluent). Even its least-affluent neighbourhood is above the national average.
Mallow Below average-5.1
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Mallow South Urban -13 (least affluent) → Mallow Rural -2 (most affluent). Every neighbourhood is below the national average.

How accurate is this, and at what level?

TOWN
Prices, amenities and commute are exact and town-specific.

Prices come from individual PPR sales inside the town’s Small-Area boundary; schools, GPs, transport, gyms and parks are counted the same way; commute is routed from the town centre.

ED
Affluence, profile and tenure are Electoral-Division level.

Published per Electoral Division and averaged across the town’s EDs, with a range where the town spans several.

AREA
Liveability and safety are wider-area, not the town.

Quality of life and rank are per Eircode routing key; safety and crime are the Garda division (Cork North), coarser than a town, so two towns in the same county read the same.

Population growth isn’t shown: the 2016 and 2022 censuses don’t use the same Small Areas, and the areas that were re-cut are the ones that grew, so a like-for-like comparison understates growth badly. Rent and yield are still too sparse to show per town. Built from 58 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Ballincollig

The stronger town on the data.

Compare somewhere else

Put any two Irish towns head to head, or step up to the wider Eircode areas.