Extrapolating the information on Limerick City, the information (according to the survey) builds as follows:

Limerick is neither the best nor the worst place to live in Ireland. (Suitably vague!!)

Limerick was classified as one of 14 towns moderately littered.

Only 3.59% of Limerick workers get up before 6.30am (probably far less in recent weeks as the school run time has diminished significantly. Hub left with two kids for school this morning at 8.30am and had them in school within 12 minutes. This time last year, it would have taken a minimum of 30 minutes to travel the same distance).

The City population has changed significantly because of two factors:

1. When the 2006 census was taken, the majority of city dwellers were away at a rugby match!!

2. The city boundaries have been extended recently and there is discussion on further extension.

Regarding schools, Laurel Hill Coláiste and Ard Scoil Rís (Girls only and boys only schools respectively) consistently rank in the top ten schools in the Sunday Times educational survey. Laurel Hill Secondary School (English speaking, on the same campus as Laurel Hill Coláiste) ranks in the top 50.

And of course, not mentioned in this site, is the wonderful rugby played in Limerick, its rugby academies, its innovative university, the longest pedestrian bridge in Ireland and its great pubs and night clubs :o)

Cavan/Bean - why I dislike is the cloudy method used to calculate the results, unless I'm missing something from the site.

Unemployment, crime and general recreational facilities are up there when it comes to quality of life - but I can't see how these factors have been used to come up with the list.

So, is it really up to the person compliling the material to use his/her judgement to weigh the components that reflect a good quality of life?

Ferdia, part of the problem is actually getting an operational definition of "Quality of Life".

There are a lot of psychological questionnaires but there appears to be very little in the sociological field (which is where your listings would appear to be classified).

Even if you just take the term well-being and wellbeing. There is complete inconsistency in the literature with academic documents using the term well-being and populist documents using the term wellbeing.

The Oxford English dictionary uses the term well-being whereas the Collins dictionary uses the term wellbeing.

Just these issues highlight the difficulties involved.

Its not really an academic document, its not even a meta-analysis, its just the gathering together of different statistics gathered using very different criteria and grouped together for mass public consumption and discussion.

But its still interesting!! :o)

Is Ballina in Tipp not just the spilt overflow from Killaloe ;-)

There's a bit of a difference Suzy...

A lot of University staff live in Ballina (which is why it has such a good education demographic).

The bridge between the two towns is a nightmare, the traffic lights - well I don't know whether they make it better or worse!! But if you need to get into Castletroy (The University and a number of industrial estates) then Ballina is better....

Got you Bean - i think....although I need some time to distinguish the two:)

Suzy - it's that bridge that seperates them, I would rather the Killaloe side (apart from a crazy lady that hangs out in the town ready to shout at small children) .... the Ballina has sprawled in recent years, and it's not in Clare:)

Snap Bean:)

Yes, ferdia, of course I am glad to see Leixlip at spot no. 15. It is a lovely place to live for several reasons: it's a nice little town with some interesting buildings, you are within commuting distance of Dublin but then again, you're in the country and within easy commuting distance of other towns (two weeks ago it took us exactly ONE hour to get to Athlone thanks to the motorway). Even with the huge housing estates around the town Leixlip has retained a "village character". And yet we have lost so many shops to the horrible shopping centres at Liffey Valley and Blanchardstown, too many to mention. I used to be able to do all my shopping locally, now I am forced to do most of my shopping outside of Leixlip - adding to my "carbon footprint".

But I am wary of surveys. The results are only as good as the people who evaluate them and it always depends on what kind of result they're looking for. Data can be evaluated this way or that way, so it should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

Just got a chance to to post as I had to tend to himself who just came home for lunch :-)

Apart from passing through Killaloe/Ballina on a handful of occasions, I was not very familiar with Ballina though delighted to hear it is such a great place to live. The hubby would agree with Tipperary Town been one of the worst places to live though, he used to be packed off to spend his Summer holidays with his Grand-parents in the 80's and has no gra for the town at all! (Apologies to all Tipp people) :-)

I've just checked the CSO website out but they don't seem to have town populations on their site!

www.cso.ie