Drogheda is now 50,000 strong - the evidence

Drogheda City Status last night delivered a powerful case for city status. The presentation at The Mill showed irrefutable data proving that Drogheda is Ireland's next city. The OECD and the EU say that 50,000 people in a connected urban space is a city and the CSO's latest housing completion figures suggest that the population of Drogheda is now at 50,000 - an increase of a massive 6,000 people since the last census.


And the growth doesn't stop there. The population should be close to 52,000 by Census 2027, and will probably surpass 60,000 by 2030. None of this includes any of the extremely close urban areas of Donacarney-Mornington-Bettystown-Laytown, a mere 650m from Drogheda's edge, Duleek, Tullyallen and more. These communities, heavily dependent on Drogheda for facilities, healthcare, retail, education and more, bring the wider metropolitan area to around 80,000.

Drogheda suffers from both geography and administration - being neither a 'county town', or even in one county, its growing population in both Louth and Meath. From Grange Rath, Deep Forde across to Bryanstown Manor and Avourwen in Meath and around to the huge new communities around the Slane Road, Ballymakenny Road and Termonfeckin Roads on the northside in County Louth. 

Drogheda's neglect can be seen in increased lawlessness, neglected streets, unchecked development, dereliction, and lack of investment. Drogheda City Status Group has called for local groups to pull together to demand action, proper administration and focus on Drogheda as a vibrant, viable urban area.

City status for Drogheda would mean:

  • Control over how Drogheda is run - in Drogheda
  • City manager - instead of being administered from 2 distant authorities in Navan and Dundalk
  • Visibility - investors, educators, new people and visitors want cities
  • Funding - cities get more funding, grants and access to more initiatives and investment
Got ideas? Want to help? Contact Drogheda City Status on droghedacitynow@gmail.com


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What benefits will the Dart+ rail project really bring to Drogheda?

Image
The much-heralded Dart+ project, which promises new trains and much increased capacity on the railway line between Drogheda and Dublin, has moved a step closer with the resolution of a judicial review case in which the parties reached an out-of-court agreement. The news has been broadly welcomed by public representatives, the media and the travelling public. Drogheda City Status Group (DCSG), while welcoming any improvement to the lengthy and stressful daily commute faced by around 15,000 people from the city of Drogheda and its environs, says that several important questions about the new project remain, and that clarification is needed by Government and Iarnród Éireann/NTA on the exact level of capacity increases and service frequency will be offered when the Dart+ finally comes into operation. Diesel trains at Drogheda station, beneath new Dart+ charging infrastructure. First and foremost, it has long been the view of Drogheda City Status Group that no serious effort has been ma...
Read more

Why a Borough council won’t fix Drogheda

Image
An aerial view of Drogheda looking from the An Cairéal complex on Donore Road. Despite clear evidence – presented by Drogheda City Status Group in October 2025 – that Drogheda has become a city, public representatives locally and nationally are ignoring the evidence to push for the restoration of the former Borough Council. There are many reasons why DCSG thinks this is a retrograde step. Drogheda’s urban population is split across two counties, Louth and Meath. A Borough Council answering to Louth County Council would be county-based, meaning that it would not serve the Drogheda people living in Meath, and the DCSG view is that it would just perpetuate the division of Drogheda. A new city administration is the best solution to unite Drogheda across county boundaries, and notably does not require any change in those county boundaries. The population of the urban area of Drogheda now surpasses 50,000, which means that by EU definitions, Drogheda is now a city. It is no longer “the...
Read more