Access to education in Ballymun

Census (2011) data presented in Map 1 shows that the Ballymun area (comprised of five electoral divisions A, B, C, D, E, F) still has a low access to third level education compared to the other electoral areas in Dublin City.

Map 1 - Population aged 15 years and over by highest level of education completed – Degree level – Percentages (Dublin Region). Source of data: Census (2011). Map source: AIRO

Three of the five Ballymun electoral divisions, namely B, C and D have particularly low figures in relation to the number of people who completed third level education. Map 2 provides a detailed account on this aspect.

It is important to note that, in practice, the ‘true’ Ballymun is deemed to include only electoral divisions B, C, D and a part of electoral division A. For this purpose, when retrieving data from the 2006 and 2011 Censuses only data for electoral divisions A, B, C and D was used for the elaboration of this material. In order to keep in line with other similar statistics produced for the Ballymun area, the entire electoral division A was included in this report.

Both the 2006 and 2011 Census reveal that for many people living in Ballymun secondary education is the highest level of education achieved by (44% in 2006 and 45% in 2011) (see Table 1). The number of people whose highest level of education is primary education represents also a numerous category (30% in 2006 and 24% in 2011).

The following chart (Chart 1) highlights the percentage changes in each of the categories from the 2006 to the 2011 Census. It is interesting to note that there is a decrease of 6% between the two Censuses in the percentage of people with only primary education. 

Furthermore, from 2006 to 2011 there is an increase by 3% in the number of people who have a degree level. This could highlight the fact that in the last five years more ballymuners have been accessing third level education.

Chart 1 - Population aged 15 years and over highest level of education completed (all Ballymun Electoral Divisions: A-F). Source: Census (2011)

In the 2006 Census no gender differences were noted in relation to accessing third level education among ballymuners. Only 3% males and 3% women living in the area have completed a degree level (see Table 2). However in the recent Census survey (2011) slightly more women were recorded as having completed a degree level (7%) or a postgraduate level (3%) than men (6% - degree level and 2% - postgraduate level). The gender differences however do not exceed 1% in either of the cases.

It is also important to note that in 2006 men were more likely than women to have completed a technical or vocational qualification: 7% males and 5% females had this type of qualification as the highest level of education completed. However, in 2011 women have a slightly higher percentage than men: 8% female graduates of vocational and technical qualifications compared to 7% male graduates of the same level of qualification.