Galway City Population Growth Stagnating

I would say there a number of factors.

1.Cost of housing, we are one of the more expensive locations in Ireland.

2. Traffic is horrendous and Galway has received very negative press regarding the Ring Road, it has been held up for years now and people considering moving here factor this into their decision.

3.Climate,most see Galway as the rain capital of the world😀 not entirely true but it is a damp spot.

4.The perception that Galway is a frivolous place, great for the weekend away and a party but not to be taken seriously as a place to live.

it's had for any city to grow when there's a housing shortage. Where would the new arrivals live?

Cost of housing is an indicator of desirability. After Cork City - Galway City is next in line.

The article compares Galway City with Leitrim - which is really daft to be honest.

There is faster population growth occurring just outside the City Admin Boundary in the satellite towns. Our public transport infrastructure is lagging behind but there are more and more house and apartment building occurring and been planned.

We really need to spend on rail, bus, tram to link up the Galway City area's and the wider area then can increase the density of the existing City Boundary.

There are plans for a new suburb to be built in Ardaun but there is plenty of potential for the population density of the City in the existing City Admin Boundary to increase back to what it was back in the 60/70's. At what rate is the question.

The figures in the tribune article of 4% growth are just wrong. It uses the Galway city and suburbs figure from 2016 of 79,934 and compares it to the Galway City local authority area in the 2022 census.

The actual growth for the local authority area was actually about 6%. 78,667 compared to 83,456. The new city and suburbs figure will be published by the CSO in May I think. It will only be a few thousand more, as the council area covers the vast majority of the urban area unlike Limerick.

Limerick's city and suburbs figure will also be about 6% higher as a comparison.

Irish people don't aspire to live in cities. They have no incentive to do them well.

Whilst I agree somewhat to the first part, I'd disagree on the second.

No longer live in the city and love where I am, but I still want to traverse the city without pulling my hair out.

I wanted the ring road and would still like it built if it didn't take away from other projects and schemes to move people around the city. I think the city is stuck in a quagmire and will only move forward with wholesale changes to the political and cultural landscapes.

Population growth for the county was 7.1%. This would have been concentrated in the non city council areas surrounding the City. The urban area defined as Galway city needs to be expanded to Include Oranmore, Barna,Claregalway and surroundings and also planning for the city should reasonably probably also incorporate Moycullen, Athenry, Furbo and surroundings as by an large growth in these areas is a function of proximity to the city.

A conservative estimate would put the effective Galway city population currently at 100,000. Grow this at 7.1% every 5 years and by 2050 you are up to 150k. That would just incorporate the area in red below

This absolutely. Very little housing development in the last 10 years or so when compared with other large urban centres. Property pages in local newspapers seem to solely feature existing properties for sale with very few new developments advertised.

You haven't the lotto numbers for that year too by any chance?

It was at capacity when it opened.

This is 100% correct. There are people living in Galway that are very happy for Galway not to grow or develop at all. They like the status quo and prefer if Galway was still a small city.

I do believe Galway City has the most non-native residents of any City in the entire Country. Sorry to destroy the myth you have about this. But maybe the CSO are fiddling the numbers in your head?

and

https://connachttribune.ie/galway-city-irelands-capital-multi-culture-077/

Where does that leave us. VERY HIGH rents.

https://connachttribune.ie/city-rents-rise-by-157-in-a-decade-687/

City Council is a mess.

They cannot plan to get there "own" Developments over the line. How embarrassing. They have so called professionals planning this stuff

https://connachttribune.ie/councillors-plea-to-bord-pleanala-just%e2%80%88give-us-something-to-build-on-676/

and they cannot get the staff

Its all interlinked by what a mess City Hall is in, but I do not believe that the Galway City people/populace (whatever political persuasion are hostile to strangers moving into the City) The CS0 data is from the last CENSUS shows this - is there any evidence there has been a flight of non-local people from the City since then? No.

City is growing slower than in the past; but really down to the City Executive/Professionals been in such an organisational mess.

I lived in Galway for 5 years and moved away at the end of 2019. I loved it at the time - I was in my twenties, moved there to do a masters and stayed another four years when I got my first job after college. Had lots of friends living around the city, enjoyed going out etc. As my thirties loomed and I started thinking about where I wanted to settle long term, Galway wasn't all that appealing due to three main reasons:

1. Traffic. It's a joke and there's not a decent, reliable public transport system round the city to use as an alternative. Heaven forbid there's a breakdown or accident anywhere in the city, the whole place seems to come to a standstill. It was draining sitting in that traffic everyday.
2. The city centre has been developed to cater to students and tourists, which is probably why I enjoyed living there so much in my twenties. Great spot for eating out, going for a drink, heading to one of the many festivals in summer, beer tenting at Christmas, but if you want to go shopping, you're wasting your time. There's plenty of county towns around the country that have shopping that's on par or better than Galway e.g. Athlone, Sligo to name two that are within a reasonable distance of Galway itself.
3. Rain. I know it rains everywhere in Ireland but Galway just seems to be on another level.
4. I might have made peace with the three points above if the cost of buying a house in or around Galway wasn't so prohibitive but given the traffic and the fact that it's essentially a student/tourist town in which it pisses down rain for 364 days of the year, the housing market is a farce. Total rip off. Why would I want to pay that much for that kind of lifestyle?

People from outside of Galway City see it as somewhere people go to college for a few years or as a nice spot to go for a weekend away. Galway hasn't been developed to meet the needs of the average person who wants to build a life somewhere. It's a pity, I would have loved to have stayed there as I have plenty of friends who've decided to stay (for another few years at least) but to be honest, I don't envy them.

"A Tale of Two City's"

Galway Councils wants to emulate what Limerick City has done, i.e create a Doughnut City and Limerick Council want to emulate what Galway City has currently - a busy City core. The two will meet somewhere in the middle I reckon - neither are going to be very successful in achieving those outcomes by the looks of it in the short term.