Over 50% of Dublin's North West population lives in 'disadvantaged' areas

Figures from Dublin City Council's new Knowledge Hub highlight the historic under-investment in areas like Ballymun and Finglas, and the knock-on impact on crime, education, and health

News Stephen Holland Local Democracy Reporter 14:33, 07 Aug 2026 View 2 Images Child (stock) (Image: Getty)

Over half of those living in Dublin’s North West live in areas classified as ‘disadvantaged’.

While it’s always been clear that some parts of Dublin city are more affluent than others, Dublin City Council ’s new Knowledge Hub lays these classifications bare for all to see. When looking through the dashboards, maps and statistics that make up the city’s deprivation index, it shows 52.1% of North West Area constituents live in communities that have faced historic under-investment.

In fact, according to Census figures more than 75% of those living in this administrative district - which is made up of Finglas, Ballymun, Glasnevin, and Santry - are in areas classified as being below average. This disadvantage even extends to people's general health with 2.8% of the area’s population classifying themselves as being in bad or very bad health - which are the poorest findings across all Dublin city areas.

When looking at Dublin city as a whole, just 2% of people state they have bad or very bad general health. In contrast, the South East Area - which includes inner city locations like Temple Bar and suburban villages such as Ringsend, Irishtown, Sandymount, Ranelagh, Rathmines, Terenure and Rathgar - have just 1.6% of people with bad or very bad health. The South East Area also has the most people in very good health at 52.4%.

These geographical inequities have an impact on practically every aspect of a person’s life, with the North West Area's disadvantaged status also impacting educational attainment, as 16.6% of people don’t have more than a primary school education, compared to 6.5% in the South Area and 10.1% citywide.

View 2 Images Dublin's population percentage living in areas classified as disadvantaged (Image: Dublin City Council's Knowledge Hub)

People Before Profit Councillor for Ballymun-Finglas Conor Reddy spoke to Dublin Live about the neglected nature of his area, which he previously highlighted received just 2% of Dublin’s non-housing capital spend for 2026 to 2028 - compared to 28% in the South East Area.

While Cllr Reddy admitted grant funding requires engagement from applicants and other areas have historically been more active in putting forward applicants, he called for more to be done to make people aware of funding opportunities available to them. “It's the same story with the capital grants which rely on active people locally with a vision for something that could benefit from that investment,” he said.

“There’s lots of great organisations but when you’re faced with that level of disadvantage and complex social problems you’re always in firefighting mode and it becomes difficult to do more of the strategic work and thinking about how we can benefit from investment.”

It’s important to consider “deeper structural issues” like Ballymun and Finglas, which Cllr Reddy pointed out, have the highest percentage of lone-parent-led families and social welfare dependency, with generational inequalities at play. “It’s hard to break those cycles,” he said, calling for interventions that focus on intensive family support. “Only with things like that do you start to make progress, and that’s not happening in the North West Area.”

Cllr Reddy explained that when having conversations around Dublin’s disadvantaged areas people often point to Ballymun and the huge amount of investment that went into regeneration projects that ultimately weren’t successful. “A lot of that money was spent on bricks and mortar and was never really spent on social regeneration,” he said.

The key to truly enacting change in disadvantaged areas comes through projects, initiatives, and developments that recognise the need to address deep-rooted issues. A great example is Trinity Comprehensive School in Ballymun , which Cllr Reddy praised for embedding their education with art therapy and fostering inclusivity and collaboration among students.

As one of the the first “trauma-informed” schools in Ireland, Cllr Reddy said their approach works because it recognises the different backgrounds children are coming from. “You’re starting to see the early fruits of that approach and I think that’s the model that should be applied to the rest of the community in Ballymun and Finglas,” he said.

Addressing social problems in disadvantaged areas must also include finding ways to reach the people who are unlikely to engage with support services. Cllr Reddy spoke about “a whole cohort of young people” who are unlikely to attend traditional youth services by chance and investing in outreach workers who actively engage with those vulnerable to anti-social behaviour and crime is paramount.

Ballymun-Finglas Sinn Féin Cllr Anthony Connaghan said he recalls being presented with area statistics over the years and constantly wondering why the North West Area always falls so far behind. “I said we've no DART, nothing comes out our way. Everything is kind of marked towards the city and the South East Area in particular has brilliant transport links,” he said.

He recognised that population density does impact how much funding goes towards certain areas but local reps have to continually fight for extra services. “It's tough to get doctors in the area, school places are a problem, crèche places,” he said.

“In my own area, Finglas in particular, the deprivation index is very high. These areas where we have the highest incidence of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing. That's where we're always pushing to get extra resources into the area, extra facilities to kind of divert kids away from that lifestyle.”

Cllr Connaghan called for more funding towards disadvantaged areas, but also more awareness among constituents around what local authorities are required to actually spend money on. “I've asked the council to put up posters to show, 'here's what's costing us a fortune, which is illegal dumping, graffiti, and here's what we could have with that money'. It's trying to get into people's heads, if you damage the community, it's costing us money that could be put elsewhere into playgrounds or sports facilities,” he said.

Ultimately, the stark figures published on Dublin City Council’s Knowledge Hub only confirm what residents in the North West Area have experienced for decades. While capital spend, transport infrastructure, and community grants remain heavily weighted toward more prosperous districts, superficial supports and short-term grants continue to fall short in the North West.

Cllr Reddy outlined that breaking the intergenerational cycles of disadvantage in Finglas and Ballymun requires a fundamental shift on the part of central government and local authorities. This means moving away from a reactive approach toward sustained, long-term social investment, youth outreach, and genuine community empowerment.

Full figures and statistics on all Dublin City Council areas can be found at the Dublin City Knowledge Hub .

This content is funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme

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