The Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2003

Mark Twain may have wrote about them contemptuously, referring to those lies, damned lies and statistics. Neverthe(twain)less, there is no denying statistics make great, if a little trivial, quiz questions.

The Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2003, presents us with a host of statistics from the Central Statistics Office. The yearbook paints a comprehensive picture of Ireland today. Although, reading through the yearbook may turn an ordinary mind ‘spare’, it does provide us with a wealth of ‘did you know?’ information. For instance, in 5 years time there is a strong likelihood that wee Jack will be pulling the pigtails of wee Sarah on their first day of school. This is due to both names remaining Number 1 in the baby names chart with 868 Jacks and 655 Sarah’s born in Ireland in 2002. In fact, both names have never been out of the top 3 since 1998. As their names remain in fashion, the same cannot be said of Stephen or Shannon who are becoming increasingly unpopular since 1998.

Interestingly, looking down through the list you can give topical reasons for the popularity of some names such as Kian, which in 1998 only 5 were born to the world compared to 106 in 2001 and 85 in 2002.

On the roads of Sligo, the most popular 02 SO reg. cars bare the emblems of Toyota and Ford, while you should mouth expletives behind seven times more 02 Massey-Ferguson tractors than Volvo cars.

Activity outside of marriage has resulted in 31% of babies being born outside of wedlock, compared with a meagre 6% in 1982. Nevertheless, the nation sat through 20,000 drunken best-man speeches, the highest registered marriage figure in 20 years.

The life expectancy for wee Jack & Sarah is 73.8 and 79.5 respectfully. Doubtlessly, Sarah will join the growing female participation rate in the labour force. The female participation rate in 1985 was around 30% and in 2002 is almost 49%, while the rate for men was over 70%.

At 3.9 million, Ireland has seen its highest population since 1871, 5.8% of which are nonnationals. There are approximately 1.8 cows per person while in Sligo the human females out number the men 29,400 to 28,800. The national average age has increased from 34.1 in 1996 to 35.1.

The number of planning permissions granted has increased in recent years, with permissions for new houses 73% higher in 2002 compared with 1996. In the same period, planning permissions for new apartments more than trebled. Over half of all houses in Ireland have been built since 1971.

On the tourism front there were 6,065,000 overseas visitors to Ireland in the year 2002, an increase of 1.3% on the previous year. The Irish visits abroad for 2002 were 4,634,000 compared with 4,216,000 in 2001.

Perhaps the most potent indicator of a changing Ireland comes in the form of prices. Today’s euro is worth a mere 2.4% compared to what it would have bought in 1922, the year the state was founded. The average price of a new house for which loans were approved by agencies has risen from €102,222 in 1997 to €198,087 in 2002. Finally, I can’t believe it is not dearer, but one foodstuff surveyed is cheaper today than in1998, namely - butter - unfortunately the price of coronary care was not surveyed! - Derek Sweeney