Town comparison · Ballon vs Rathvilly

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Ballon or Rathvilly?

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.

Ballon, Co. Carlow · R93 · 801 people | Rathvilly, Co. Carlow · R93 · 894 people

Ballon is the stronger town on the data. It leads on 4 of the 7 dimensions to Rathvilly’s 0, with 3 level.

Ballon leads on
affluenceeducation levelsaffordabilityaccess to its nearest city
14326

Ballon aheadlevel or not comparableRathvilly ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
BallonRathvilly
iBoth towns sit in the same Eircode area R93 — on the routing-key area page they would read as one number. At town level they diverge. 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.

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

Ballon
Rathvilly

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.

801
Population
894

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€300k
Median sale pricelower is better
€315k
Ballon leads
€274k – €362k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€275k – €352k
17
Sales (24m)
37
N/A
Price momentum (YoY)
N/A
N/A
New-build share
24.3%

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.

1 prim · 0 sec
Schools
1 prim · 0 sec
Ballon · 1 schools (largest first)
S N Peadar Agus Pol Primary
250 pupils · Catholic
Rathvilly · 1 schools (largest first)
St Patricks N S Primary
199 pupils · CatholicDEIS
1
Creches
3
Rathvilly leads
N/A
GP practices
N/A
0
Pharmacies
0
0
Hospitals
0
2
Bus stops
3
Rathvilly leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
0
2
Gyms & leisure
2
0
Parks & playgrounds
0
4
Sports pitches
10
Rathvilly 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.

0
Restaurants
0
0
Cafés
0
0
Pubs & bars
4
Rathvilly leads
1
Takeaways
0
Ballon leads
0
Nightclubs
0
0
Cinema & theatre
0
801
Residents per venuelower is better
224
Rathvilly 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.

0
Supermarkets
0
3
Convenience shops
0
Ballon leads
1
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
0
Ballon leads
0
Banks
0
0
Post offices
0
0
Hairdressers
0
0
Dentists
0
0
Vets
0
2
Filling stations
1
Ballon leads
0
EV charging
0
0
Library & community centre
0
134
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
894
Ballon 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.

65m · ~80 rush
Waterfordlower is better
75m · ~90 rush
Ballon leads
80m · ~115 rush
Dublinlower is better
72m · ~105 rush
Rathvilly leads
130m · ~150 rush
Limericklower is better
132m · ~150 rush
Ballon leads
151m · ~175 rush
Corklower is better
161m · ~185 rush
Ballon leads
173m · ~195 rush
Galway
173m · ~195 rush

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
-3.6
Affluence (Pobal HP)
-9.5
Ballon leads
Ballon · 4 EDs, poorest → richest
-8BallonBelow average
-2RathrushBelow average
-2BallonBelow average
+2RathrushAbove average
Rathvilly · 4 EDs, poorest → richest
-14RathvillyDisadvantaged
-11RathvillyDisadvantaged
-7RahillBelow average
+1RahillAbove average
34.4%
Third-level educated
24.2%
Ballon leads
34.0%
Professional class
28.5%
Ballon leads
9.5%
Unemploymentlower is better
14.8%
Ballon leads
76.8%
Owner-occupier
72.4%
Ballon leads
12.5%
Private rental
11.7%
5.4%
Social housing (LA)
11.3%

Liveability & safety

AREA · R93 / R93

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (BallonR93, RathvillyR93); safety & crime are the Kilkenny/Carlow Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

62/100
Quality of Life
62/100

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (R93 / R93) 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.

BallonRathvillyOverall (avg)
Safety62626262
Affordability9696
Infrastructure6464
Family7070
Education4242
Environment6969
Economic3232
020406080100020406080100
#66
National rank
#66
#1
County rank
#1
62/100
Safety
62/100
57.6
Crime / 1,000
57.6

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.

Ballon Below average-3.6
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Ballon -8 (least affluent) → Rathrush +2 (most affluent). It straddles the national average.
Rathvilly Disadvantaged-9.5
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Rathvilly -14 (least affluent) → Rahill +1 (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 (Kilkenny/Carlow), 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 6 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Ballon

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.