Census 2022 has found that people in Ireland feel their health has gotten worse.
There has been a shift since 2016 with the percentage of the population reporting their general health status as very good decreasing from 59 to 53 %.
In particular, one in five, who were unable to work due to permanent sickness or disability recorded having bad or very bad health.
Sheelagh Bonoham from the CSO told South East Radio News that the figures in Wexford reflect the national figures.
A comprehensive list of the figures relating to disability, health, smoking and carers can be seen below.
The questions regarding tobacco and smoking are a new addition for in the latest census.
Disability
In April 2022 in Wexford, more than 39,500 people (24% of the county’s population) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent. Of these, 15,047 people (9% of the county’s population) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent or a lot. A further 24,460 people (15% of the county’s population) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to some extent or a little.
Nationally,1.1 million people (22%) reported experiencing at least one long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent, of whom 407,342 (8%) experienced a long-lasting condition or difficulty to a great extent and 702,215 (14%) to some extent.
In Ireland overall, more females (22%) than males (21%) experienced a long-lasting condition or difficulty to any extent. In Wexford, this rate was 24% for both females and males.
Health
The general health question had five response options on the census form ranging from very good, good, fair, bad to very bad. More than 136,300 people (83%) in the county stated their health was very good or good in Census 2022. This was down from 87% in Census 2016 and 88% in Census 2011. Nationally, 83% of people had good or very good health, down from 87% in 2016 and 88% in 2011.
Among the county’s females,43,706 (53%) reported very good health, along with 53% (42,754) of males.
There were also 3,315 people who reported bad or very bad health in the county, up from 2,621 people in 2016.
Smoking
In Wexford, more than 17,000 people smoked daily in April 2022 which was 10% of the population compared with 9% nationally. Almost 6,700 people smoked occasionally (4%) while almost 34,821 people had given up smoking (21%). More than 95,700 people stated they never smoked (58%). Nationally, 60% of the population never smoked.
The number of males in the county who smoked daily was greater than the number of females (9,374 males compared with 7,640 females).
Carers
There were more than 10,100 unpaid carers in Wexford in April 2022, which was 6% of the county’s population compared with 4% in 2016. Nationally there were almost 300,000 unpaid carers, or 6% of the population, up from 4% in the previous census.
Females in the county were more likely to be carers than males, with 62% of all carers being female, a similar trend to the national figure. There were 6,290 female carers (8% of all females), compared with 3,895 male carers (5% of all males) in Wexford.
There were 165 carers in Wexford under 15 years of age providing regular unpaid care which was an increase on 2016 when there were 109 young carers.
As well as the growth in the number of carers, the period between 2016 and 2022 also saw some notable increases in the hours of unpaid care provided. The number of carers in Wexford providing 43 or more hours of unpaid help each week more than doubled, from 1,469 in 2016 to 3,342 in 2022.
