Population Statistics

Population

Over the past twenty years the population of the Omagh District Council area has risen by almost 8% from 44,288 in 1981 to 47,800 by 2000.

Whilst the general trend in population across Northern Ireland points towards an ageing population, Omagh continues to have a youthful profile with almost 70% (33,300) of people living in the district being below the age of 45 and almost 61% (29,100) being of working age.

The growth in the district's population over the past ten years has been largely fuelled by the increase in the number of people of working age living in the area. Between 1991 and 2000 the number of people of working age in Omagh increased by 2,975 from 26,125 to 29,100, a rise of 11.4%. This is a trend that has been reflected in the growth in population in Northern Ireland as a whole where the working population has increased by 10.6% over the same period.

Future Population

Over the next ten to fifteen years the population of Omagh, like that across Northern Ireland as a whole, is expected to continue to rise steadily. By 2015 it is expected that there will be 50,800 people living in the district, a rise of 6.3% on the 2000 figure, whilst across Northern Ireland the population is expected to increase by 4.74% to 1,778,310 over the same period.

The trend toward falling birth rates and an ageing population is set to continue, the number of children in the population of Northern Ireland is expected to fall by almost 16% (from 407,981 in 2000 to 343,127 in 2015) whilst the number of pensioners is expected to rise by almost 27% (from 259,221 in 2000 to 328,409 in 2015) During this period, however, Omagh is expected to continue to experience a steady increase in the numbers of people of working age living in the district, which is expected to reach 31,951 a rise of almost 10% on the 2000 figure.