Town comparison · Ballincollig vs Tower

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Ballincollig or Tower?

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 | Tower, Co. Cork City · T23 · 3,428 people

Ballincollig and Tower are closely matched. Each leads on 3 of the 7 dimensions, with 1 level.

Ballincollig leads on
affluenceeducation levelsschools & amenities
Tower leads on
public transportsafetyaffordability
32119

Ballincollig aheadlevel or not comparableTower ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
BallincolligTower
iBallincollig sits in P31, Tower in T23. 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
Tower

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
3,428

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€422k
Median sale pricelower is better
€372k
Tower leads
€332k – €469k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€285k – €435k
331
Sales (24m)
49
+9.2%
Price momentum (YoY)
N/A
20.8%
New-build share
6.1%

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
2 prim · 0 sec
Ballincollig 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
Tower · 2 schools (largest first)
Cloghroe Mixed N S Primary
519 pupils · Catholic
Strawberry Hill National School Primary
329 pupils · CatholicDEIS
8
Creches
5
Ballincollig leads
6
GP practices
1
Ballincollig leads
6
Pharmacies
2
Ballincollig leads
0
Hospitals
0
14
Bus stops
21
Tower leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
0
13
Gyms & leisure
1
Ballincollig leads
1
Parks & playgrounds
3
Tower leads
14
Sports pitches
11
Ballincollig 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
2
Ballincollig leads
10
Cafés
0
Ballincollig leads
5
Pubs & bars
3
Ballincollig leads
8
Takeaways
0
Ballincollig leads
0
Nightclubs
0
1
Cinema & theatre
0
Ballincollig leads
66
Residents per venuelower is better
686
Ballincollig leads

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
1
Ballincollig leads
3
Convenience shops
2
Ballincollig leads
3
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
0
Ballincollig leads
4
Banks
0
Ballincollig leads
1
Post offices
1
20
Hairdressers
3
Ballincollig leads
4
Dentists
1
Ballincollig leads
2
Vets
0
Ballincollig leads
2
Filling stations
1
Ballincollig leads
2
EV charging
0
Ballincollig leads
3
Library & community centre
0
Ballincollig leads
48
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
381
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
16m · ~25 rush
Ballincollig leads
93m · ~110 rush
Limericklower is better
85m · ~105 rush
Tower leads
115m · ~130 rush
Waterfordlower is better
121m · ~135 rush
Ballincollig leads
163m · ~185 rush
Galwaylower is better
155m · ~180 rush
Tower leads
185m · ~220 rush
Dublinlower is better
190m · ~225 rush
Ballincollig leads

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
4
Affluence (Pobal HP)
2.7
Ballincollig leads
Ballincollig · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
+3BallincolligAbove average
+5BallincolligAffluent
Tower · 4 EDs, poorest → richest
0BlarneyBelow average
+3BlarneyAbove average
+4MatehyAbove average
+5MatehyAffluent
48.6%
Third-level educated
42.1%
Ballincollig leads
47.0%
Professional class
44.8%
Ballincollig leads
6.9%
Unemploymentlower is better
6.4%
Tower leads
72.5%
Owner-occupier
79.4%
Tower leads
17.7%
Private rental
14.5%
7.6%
Social housing (LA)
4.5%

Liveability & safety

AREA · P31 / T23

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (BallincolligP31, TowerT23); safety & crime are the Cork North Garda division.

72/100
Quality of Life
60/100
Ballincollig leads

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (P31 / T23) 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.

BallincolligTowerOverall (avg)
Safety72566061
Affordability7192
Infrastructure6193
Family8355
Education6928
Environment8469
Economic8223
020406080100020406080100
#4
National ranklower is better
#81
Ballincollig leads
#2
County ranklower is better
#15
Ballincollig leads
56/100
Safety
61/100
Tower leads
67
Crime / 1,000lower is better
58.8
Tower leads

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.
Tower Above average+2.7
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Blarney 0 (least affluent) → Matehy +5 (most affluent). It straddles 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 19 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Ballincollig

The towns are level, so these are from the first.

Compare somewhere else

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