Town comparison · Blackrock vs Tower

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Blackrock 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.

Blackrock, Co. Cork City · T12 · 664 people | Tower, Co. Cork City · T23 · 3,428 people

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

Tower leads on
affluenceeducation levelspublic transportaffordability
192112

Blackrock aheadlevel or not comparableTower ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
BlackrockTower
iBlackrock sits in T12, 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.
!Blackrock 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.

Blackrock
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.

664
Population
3,428

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€425k
Median sale pricelower is better
€372k
Tower leads
€331k – €575k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€285k – €435k
208
Sales (24m)
49
+8.6%
Price momentum (YoY)
N/A
1.9%
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.

1 prim · 1 sec
Schools
2 prim · 0 sec
Blackrock · 2 schools (largest first)
Christ King Girls' Secondary School Secondary
703 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Scoil Ursula Primary
188 pupils · CatholicDEIS
Tower · 2 schools (largest first)
Cloghroe Mixed N S Primary
519 pupils · Catholic
Strawberry Hill National School Primary
329 pupils · CatholicDEIS
6
Creches
5
Blackrock leads
N/A
GP practices
1
2
Pharmacies
2
0
Hospitals
0
18
Bus stops
21
Tower leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
0
3
Gyms & leisure
1
Blackrock leads
4
Parks & playgrounds
3
Blackrock leads
9
Sports pitches
11
Tower 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.

4
Restaurants
2
Blackrock leads
6
Cafés
0
Blackrock leads
5
Pubs & bars
3
Blackrock leads
5
Takeaways
0
Blackrock leads
0
Nightclubs
0
1
Cinema & theatre
0
Blackrock leads
32
Residents per venuelower is better
686
Blackrock 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.

1
Supermarkets
1
2
Convenience shops
2
2
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
0
Blackrock leads
2
Banks
0
Blackrock leads
1
Post offices
1
1
Hairdressers
3
Tower leads
0
Dentists
1
Tower leads
0
Vets
0
1
Filling stations
1
2
EV charging
0
Blackrock leads
0
Library & community centre
0
55
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
381
Blackrock 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.

9m · ~15 rush
Corklower is better
16m · ~25 rush
Blackrock leads
94m · ~110 rush
Limericklower is better
85m · ~105 rush
Tower leads
105m · ~120 rush
Waterfordlower is better
121m · ~135 rush
Blackrock leads
164m · ~190 rush
Galwaylower is better
155m · ~180 rush
Tower leads
175m · ~210 rush
Dublinlower is better
190m · ~225 rush
Blackrock leads

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
-2.6
Affluence (Pobal HP)
2.7
Tower leads
Blackrock · 6 EDs, poorest → richest
-8Mahon BBelow average
-4Mahon BBelow average
-3Mahon ABelow average
-2Tramore CBelow average
-1Mahon ABelow average
+1Tramore CAbove average
Tower · 4 EDs, poorest → richest
0BlarneyBelow average
+3BlarneyAbove average
+4MatehyAbove average
+5MatehyAffluent
40.6%
Third-level educated
42.1%
Tower leads
36.8%
Professional class
44.8%
Tower leads
11.6%
Unemploymentlower is better
6.4%
Tower leads
53.1%
Owner-occupier
79.4%
Tower leads
22.5%
Private rental
14.5%
22.5%
Social housing (LA)
4.5%

Liveability & safety

AREA · T12 / T23

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (BlackrockT12, TowerT23); safety & crime are the Cork City Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

66/100
Quality of Life
60/100
Blackrock leads

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (T12 / 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.

BlackrockTowerOverall (avg)
Safety66616061
Affordability7292
Infrastructure8693
Family6455
Education5528
Environment6269
Economic6423
020406080100020406080100
#35
National ranklower is better
#81
Blackrock leads
#9
County ranklower is better
#15
Blackrock leads
61/100
Safety
61/100
58.8
Crime / 1,000
58.8

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.

Blackrock Below average-2.6
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Mahon B -8 (least affluent) → Tramore C +1 (most affluent). It straddles 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 City), 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 15 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Tower

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.