Town comparison · Loughrea vs Oughterard

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Loughrea or Oughterard?

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.

Loughrea, Co. Galway · H62 · 5,629 people | Oughterard, Co. Galway · H91 · 1,542 people

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

Loughrea leads on
schools & amenitiespublic transportaffordability
Oughterard leads on
affluenceeducation levelsaccess to its nearest city
231514

Loughrea aheadlevel or not comparableOughterard ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
LoughreaOughterard
iLoughrea sits in H62, Oughterard in H91. 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.

Loughrea
Oughterard

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.

5,629
Population
1,542

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€327k
Median sale pricelower is better
€355k
Loughrea leads
€255k – €388k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€231k – €458k
221
Sales (24m)
50
+21.5%
Price momentum (YoY)
N/A
10.9%
New-build share
2.0%

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 · 2 sec
Schools
1 prim · 1 sec
Loughrea leads
Loughrea · 5 schools (largest first)
St Brigids College Secondary
754 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · MULTI DENOMINATIONAL
St Raphaels College Secondary
741 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
S N Ide Naofa Primary
304 pupils · Catholic
St Brendans N S Primary
226 pupils · Catholic
Gaelscoil Riabhach Primary
171 pupils · Multi Denominational
Oughterard · 2 schools (largest first)
St Pauls Secondary
479 pupils · 65% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Scoil Chuimín & Caitríona Primary
263 pupils · CatholicDEIS
9
Creches
3
Loughrea leads
N/A
GP practices
N/A
3
Pharmacies
1
Loughrea leads
0
Hospitals
0
12
Bus stops
4
Loughrea leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
0
5
Gyms & leisure
4
Loughrea leads
5
Parks & playgrounds
1
Loughrea leads
13
Sports pitches
14
Oughterard 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
Loughrea leads
2
Cafés
2
12
Pubs & bars
6
Loughrea leads
4
Takeaways
2
Loughrea leads
0
Nightclubs
0
0
Cinema & theatre
0
256
Residents per venuelower is better
129
Oughterard 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.

4
Supermarkets
1
Loughrea leads
5
Convenience shops
4
Loughrea leads
4
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
2
Loughrea leads
3
Banks
2
Loughrea leads
1
Post offices
2
Oughterard leads
6
Hairdressers
2
Loughrea leads
2
Dentists
0
Loughrea leads
3
Vets
0
Loughrea leads
3
Filling stations
1
Loughrea leads
4
EV charging
0
Loughrea leads
1
Library & community centre
2
Oughterard leads
156
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
96
Oughterard 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.

33m · ~55 rush
Galwaylower is better
27m · ~50 rush
Oughterard leads
72m · ~90 rush
Limericklower is better
99m · ~115 rush
Loughrea leads
130m · ~165 rush
Dublinlower is better
169m · ~205 rush
Loughrea leads
151m · ~175 rush
Corklower is better
179m · ~200 rush
Loughrea leads
160m · ~175 rush
Waterfordlower is better
212m · ~225 rush
Loughrea leads

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
-3.5
Affluence (Pobal HP)
3
Oughterard leads
Loughrea · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
-6Loughrea UrbanBelow average
-1Loughrea UrbanBelow average
Oughterard · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
+1OughterardAbove average
+5OughterardAffluent
37.1%
Third-level educated
41.6%
Oughterard leads
33.0%
Professional class
44.6%
Oughterard leads
13.1%
Unemploymentlower is better
5.7%
Oughterard leads
52.7%
Owner-occupier
75.8%
Oughterard leads
31.1%
Private rental
10.3%
13.1%
Social housing (LA)
2.4%

Liveability & safety

AREA · H62 / H91

Wider-area figures, not the town. Quality of life & rank are for the whole Eircode area each town sits in (LoughreaH62, OughterardH91); safety & crime are the Galway Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

66/100
Quality of Life
69/100
Oughterard leads

Quality of Life is the equal-weighted average of these seven 0–100 dimensions, scored for the whole Eircode routing area (H62 / H91) 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.

LoughreaOughterardOverall (avg)
Safety66616961
Affordability8875
Infrastructure3581
Family8075
Education5150
Environment8888
Economic5755
020406080100020406080100
#35
National ranklower is better
#26
Oughterard leads
#2
County ranklower is better
#1
Oughterard leads
61/100
Safety
61/100
60.1
Crime / 1,000
60.1

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.

Loughrea Below average-3.5
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Loughrea Urban -6 (least affluent) → Loughrea Urban -1 (most affluent). Every neighbourhood is below the national average.
Oughterard Above average+3.0
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Oughterard +1 (least affluent) → Oughterard +5 (most affluent). Even its least-affluent neighbourhood is above 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 (Galway), 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 29 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Loughrea

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.