Letterkenny, Co. Donegal scores 52/100 for quality of life, #94 of the 108 Irish areas BuyerIQ ranks, and its fundamentals are rated “declining”. The median home sells for €206,500 (most €131,000–€295,000), it scores 71/100 for safety (44.8 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents), 17,113 people live here. It's strongest on affordability and environment, weakest on transport & services.
Updated August 2026 · Property Price Register + 20+ official sources, refreshed daily
About average today — the fundamentals are slipping behind the rest of the country.
Ranked on quality of life alone — cost of living excluded, so the genuinely best areas rank top even though they cost more. Factor in price and Letterkenny is #85 of 108 for value for money (most quality of life per euro).
17,113 people.
28th most vibrant large town in Ireland, of 65 ranked.
Vibrancy is the plain count of places to eat, drink and go out — restaurants, cafés, pubs, takeaways, nightclubs and cinemas in and around the town. Per head is the different question of whether a town is well served for its size.
Ranked against large towns only. Tourist towns read high — the venues are real, but not all of them are there for the people who live here.
Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, scores 52/100 on BuyerIQ's Quality of Life composite (cost of living excluded) — #94 of the 108 areas we rank. It's strongest on affordability and environment.
Letterkenny scores 71/100 on safety, ~44.8 recorded crimes per 1,000 residents.
The median sale price in Letterkenny over the last 24 months was €206,500, most between €131,000 and €295,000 (Property Price Register).
Letterkenny is rated "Declining" — unemployment rose 11% → 12% — lagging the national fall, third-level education up only 0 points — behind the national rise, prices up 121.4%.
About 17% of homes sold in Letterkenny in the last 24 months were new builds (Property Price Register).
136 planning applications were lodged within Letterkenny in the last 12 months, covering 275 residential units (739 on record) — measured per town, not just at county level.
Letterkenny scores 75/100 for families and community.
Letterkenny scores 31/100 for schools and education, with 11 schools in the area.
Letterkenny is about 194 minutes by road from Dublin.
Sale prices from the Property Price Register (rolling 24 months). Quality of Life averages seven equal-weighted dimensions from 40+ metrics across 13 public datasets (CSO census + SAPS, Garda crime, SEAI, EPA, DES schools, GTFS). Population is CSO Census 2022; the “on the up” trajectory compares 2016→2022. Figures refresh daily · an area assessment, not advice on a specific property. Updated August 2026.