Longford tops the list of people interested in moving to Australia
People from Longford top list of those “most eager to make the move to Australia”
Longford has emerged at the top of the list of counties whose 18-35’s are “most eager to leave for a new life in Australia.”
This is according to new research conducted by USIT, ‘Ireland's leading specialist in student travel, work abroad and intern/trainee programmes.’
USIT says their study revealed “which Irish counties are the most desperate to escape Down Under, by analysing Google search demand against the number of young people living in each county.”
The analysis found that Longford recorded the highest level of online searches relating to moving to Australia, with 363 searches for every 10,000 residents aged between 18 and 35, placing the county comfortably ahead of the rest of the country.
USIT says they analysed a year's worth of Google searches for terms including "working holiday visa Australia", "jobs in Australia", "moving to Sydney" and "cost of living Australia" to determine where interest was strongest.
The organisation described Longford's result as being particularly “striking” given the county's relatively small population.
They wrote, “At the top of the table is Longford, where Australia-related searches run at 363 for every 10,000 residents aged 18 to 35, comfortably the highest rate in the country. It is a striking result for one of Ireland's smaller midlands counties. With a relatively modest population of young adults, the sheer concentration of interest in working holidays and life Down Under puts Longford in a league of its own. “
Leitrim ranked second, recording 280 searches per 10,000 young people, while Galway claimed third place with 226 searches.
Of Galway, they wrote, “With 62,042 residents aged 18 to 35, Galway has one of the biggest young populations in the country, and it pairs that scale with genuine intensity of interest. After Dublin, Galway had more people searching than anywhere else, averaging 1,400 searches a month over the past year. Even when you take its large young population into account, it still ranks near the top.”
Dublin, despite generating by far the highest total number of searches, ranked fourth once its much larger population of young adults was taken into account.
Wexford completed the top five.