Town comparison · Donabate vs Portmarnock

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Donabate or Portmarnock?

Both towns measured at town level, not the wider Eircode area, on the same 53 figures: prices, schools, amenities, social life, commute, affluence and safety.

Donabate, Co. Fingal · K36 · 9,092 people | Portmarnock, Co. Fingal · D13 · 8,856 people

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

Donabate leads on
affordability
Portmarnock leads on
schools & amenitiespublic transport
62522

Donabate aheadlevel or not comparablePortmarnock ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
DonabatePortmarnock
iDonabate sits in K36, Portmarnock in D13. 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.

Donabate
Portmarnock

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.

9,092
Population
8,856

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€432k
Median sale pricelower is better
€661k
Donabate leads
€383k – €511k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€521k – €764k
456
Sales (24m)
322
+8.7%
Price momentum (YoY)
-12.5%
53.9%
New-build share
38.5%

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.

4 prim · 1 sec
Schools
5 prim · 1 sec
Portmarnock leads
Donabate · 5 schools (largest first)
Donabate Community College Secondary
813 pupils · 75% to 3rd-level · MULTI DENOMINATIONAL
Donabate/portrane Educate Together Ns Primary
419 pupils · Multi Denominational
S N C Naomh Padraig Primary
384 pupils · Catholic
St Patricks Boys National School Primary
371 pupils · Catholic
Gaelscoil Na Mara Primary
105 pupils · Multi Denominational
Portmarnock · 6 schools (largest first)
Portmarnock Community School Secondary
960 pupils · 75% to 3rd-level · INTER DENOMINATIONAL
Scoil Naomh Mearnog Primary
623 pupils · Catholic
Malahide / Portmarnock Educate Together National School Primary
390 pupils · Multi Denominational
St Helens Senior N S Primary
371 pupils · Catholic
St Helens Junior N S Primary
330 pupils · Catholic
San Nioclas Myra Primary
190 pupils · Catholic
16
Creches
16
2
GP practices
2
3
Pharmacies
4
Portmarnock leads
0
Hospitals
0
21
Bus stops
50
Portmarnock leads
1
Rail / Luas stops
1
7
Gyms & leisure
11
Portmarnock leads
7
Parks & playgrounds
14
Portmarnock leads
33
Sports pitches
44
Portmarnock 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.

2
Restaurants
6
Portmarnock leads
4
Cafés
3
Donabate leads
1
Pubs & bars
2
Portmarnock leads
4
Takeaways
6
Portmarnock leads
0
Nightclubs
1
Portmarnock leads
0
Cinema & theatre
0
827
Residents per venuelower is better
492
Portmarnock leads
#90 of 131 small towns
Most vibrant (national)lower is better
#61 of 131 small towns
Portmarnock 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.

2
Supermarkets
2
2
Convenience shops
4
Portmarnock leads
2
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
3
Portmarnock leads
1
Banks
0
Donabate leads
1
Post offices
1
5
Hairdressers
3
Donabate leads
1
Dentists
0
Donabate leads
0
Vets
0
1
Filling stations
2
Portmarnock leads
0
EV charging
0
2
Library & community centre
2
535
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
521
Portmarnock 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.

26m · ~50 rush
Dublinlower is better
24m · ~50 rush
Portmarnock leads
132m · ~145 rush
Waterford
132m · ~145 rush
153m · ~170 rush
Limerick
153m · ~170 rush
158m · ~180 rush
Galway
158m · ~180 rush
192m · ~215 rush
Cork
192m · ~215 rush

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
5.6
Affluence (Pobal HP)
4.5
Donabate leads
Donabate · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
+5DonabateAffluent
+6DonabateAffluent
Portmarnock · 10 EDs, poorest → richest
0BalgriffinBelow average
+3Portmarnock NorthAbove average
+3Portmarnock NorthAbove average
+4Portmarnock SouthAffluent
+5KinsaleyAffluent
+5KinsaleyAffluent
+7Portmarnock SouthAffluent
+8Malahide EastAffluent
+9Malahide EastAffluent
+10BalgriffinAffluent
51.2%
Third-level educated
51.8%
Portmarnock leads
53.6%
Professional class
55.3%
Portmarnock leads
7.3%
Unemploymentlower is better
6.1%
Portmarnock leads
78.9%
Owner-occupier
83.7%
Portmarnock leads
13.5%
Private rental
12.5%
4.9%
Social housing (LA)
1.9%

Liveability & safety

AREA · K36 / D13

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (DonabateK36, PortmarnockD13); safety & crime are the DMR North Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

70/100
Quality of Life
70/100

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (K36 / D13) 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.

DonabatePortmarnockOverall (avg)
Safety70597059
Affordability2949
Infrastructure7999
Family7170
Education8258
Environment8288
Economic8565
020406080100020406080100
#18
National rank
#18
#6
County rank
#6
59/100
Safety
59/100
61.8
Crime / 1,000lower is better
61.5
Portmarnock 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.

Donabate Affluent+5.6
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Donabate +5 (least affluent) → Donabate +7 (most affluent). Even its least-affluent neighbourhood is above the national average.
Portmarnock Affluent+4.5
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Balgriffin 0 (least affluent) → Balgriffin +10 (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 (DMR 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 60 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Portmarnock

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.