Town comparison · Loughrea vs Salthill

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Loughrea or Salthill?

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 | Salthill, Co. Galway · H91 · 3,608 people

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

Loughrea leads on
schools & amenitiesaffordability
Salthill leads on
affluenceeducation levelspublic transportaccess to its nearest city
191617

Loughrea aheadlevel or not comparableSalthill ahead

AffluenceEducationAmenitiesTransportSafetyAffordabilityCity access
LoughreaSalthill
iLoughrea sits in H62, Salthill 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.
!Salthill 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.

Loughrea
Salthill

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
3,608

Prices & market

TOWN · exact
€327k
Median sale pricelower is better
€530k
Loughrea leads
€255k – €388k
Typical range (P25–P75)
€380k – €776k
221
Sales (24m)
160
+21.5%
Price momentum (YoY)
N/A
10.9%
New-build share
3.8%

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
4 prim · 2 sec
Salthill 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
Salthill · 6 schools (largest first)
Coláiste Muire Máthair Secondary
765 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Dominican College Secondary
601 pupils · 70% to 3rd-level · CATHOLIC
Scoil Náisiúnta Róis Primary
315 pupils · Catholic
Scoil Ide Primary
272 pupils · Catholic
S N Fhursa Primary
200 pupils · Catholic
Scoil Naomh Einde Primary
117 pupils · Catholic
9
Creches
5
Loughrea leads
N/A
GP practices
3
3
Pharmacies
5
Salthill leads
0
Hospitals
0
12
Bus stops
30
Salthill leads
0
Rail / Luas stops
0
5
Gyms & leisure
5
5
Parks & playgrounds
6
Salthill leads
13
Sports pitches
6
Loughrea 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
11
Salthill leads
2
Cafés
9
Salthill leads
12
Pubs & bars
9
Loughrea leads
4
Takeaways
4
0
Nightclubs
0
0
Cinema & theatre
2
Salthill leads
256
Residents per venuelower is better
103
Salthill 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
6
Salthill leads
4
Bakery, butcher & greengrocer
1
Loughrea leads
3
Banks
2
Loughrea leads
1
Post offices
1
6
Hairdressers
1
Loughrea leads
2
Dentists
1
Loughrea leads
3
Vets
1
Loughrea leads
3
Filling stations
2
Loughrea leads
4
EV charging
0
Loughrea leads
1
Library & community centre
0
Loughrea leads
156
Residents per shop or servicelower is better
226
Loughrea 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
3m · ~5 rush
Salthill leads
72m · ~90 rush
Limericklower is better
81m · ~100 rush
Loughrea leads
130m · ~165 rush
Dublinlower is better
150m · ~185 rush
Loughrea leads
151m · ~175 rush
Corklower is better
161m · ~185 rush
Loughrea leads
160m · ~175 rush
Waterfordlower is better
193m · ~205 rush
Loughrea leads

Affluence & profile

ELECTORAL DIVISION
-3.5
Affluence (Pobal HP)
5.1
Salthill leads
Loughrea · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
-6Loughrea UrbanBelow average
-1Loughrea UrbanBelow average
Salthill · 2 EDs, poorest → richest
+5SalthillAffluent
+5SalthillAffluent
37.1%
Third-level educated
66.6%
Salthill leads
33.0%
Professional class
48.9%
Salthill leads
13.1%
Unemploymentlower is better
10.6%
Salthill leads
52.7%
Owner-occupier
51.2%
Loughrea leads
31.1%
Private rental
44.9%
13.1%
Social housing (LA)
2.6%

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, SalthillH91); safety & crime are the Galway Garda division — so they read identically for both towns.

66/100
Quality of Life
69/100
Salthill 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.

LoughreaSalthillOverall (avg)
Safety66616961
Affordability8875
Infrastructure3581
Family8075
Education5150
Environment8888
Economic5755
020406080100020406080100
#35
National ranklower is better
#26
Salthill leads
#2
County ranklower is better
#1
Salthill 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.
Salthill Affluent+5.1
← more deprivednational avg · 0more affluent →
Spread across the town: Salthill +5 (least affluent) → Salthill +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 39 CSO Small Areas.

Homes for sale in Salthill

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.