Editing County Donegal (section)

==Demographics==
{{Historical populations
|state=collapsed
|1600|7889
|1610|5778
|1659|12001
|1821|120559
|1831|141845
|1841|296448
|1851|255158
|1861|237395
|1871|218334
|1881|206035
|1891|185635
|1901|173722
|1911|168537
|1926|152508
|1936|142310
|1946|136317
|1951|131530
|1956|122059
|1961|113842
|1966|108549
|1971|108344
|1979|121941
|1981|125112
|1986|129664
|1991|128117
|1996|129994
|2002|137575
|2006|147264
|2011|161137
|2016|159192
|2022|167084
||footnote=<ref name=cso2016>{{cite web |url=http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2016/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=CTY31&Geog_Code=2AE1962914A413A3E055000000000001 |title=Census 2016 Sapmap Area: County Donegal |publisher=[[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)]] |access-date=26 October 2018 |archive-date=27 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181027061532/http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2016/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=CTY31&Geog_Code=2AE1962914A413A3E055000000000001}}</ref><ref>For 1653 and 1659 figures from Civil Survey Census of those years, Paper of Mr Hardinge to Royal Irish Academy 14 March 1865.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cso.ie/census |title=Server Error 404 – CSO – Central Statistics Office |website=cso.ie |access-date=21 June 2019 |archive-date=21 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321114801/https://www.cso.ie/census |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.histpop.org |title=A collection of British Historical Population Reports |publisher=University of Essex |access-date=9 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507023856/http://www.histpop.org/ |archive-date=7 May 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census |title=Census 2013 |publisher=Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Government of the United Kingdom |date=27 September 2010 |access-date=9 July 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217095720/http://www.nisranew.nisra.gov.uk/census |archive-date=17 February 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Lee |first=J. J. |author-link=J. J. Lee (historian) |editor-last=Goldstrom |editor-first=J. M. |editor2-last=Clarkson |editor2-first=L. A. |title=Irish Population, Economy, and Society: Essays in Honour of the Late K. H. Connell |year=1981 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford, England |chapter=On the accuracy of the [[Great Famine (Ireland)|Pre-famine]] Irish censuses}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Mokyr |first1=Joel |author-link=Joel Mokyr |last2=Ó Gráda |first2=Cormac |author2-link=Cormac Ó Gráda |title=New Developments in Irish Population History, 1700–1850 |journal=The Economic History Review |volume=37 |issue=4 |pages=473–488 |date=November 1984 |url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121204160709/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/120035880/abstract |url-status=dead |archive-date=4 December 2012 |doi=10.1111/j.1468-0289.1984.tb00344.x |hdl=10197/1406 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>
}}

===Largest towns===
Letterkenny is by far the largest settlement in Donegal, with a population of just over 22,000. It is the largest town in the [[Border Region]] and the [[List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland|21st largest urban area]] in the Republic of Ireland.

Under [[Central Statistics Office (Ireland)|CSO]] classification, an "Urban Area" is a town with a population greater than 1,500. As of the 2016 Census, Donegal is the most rural / least urbanised county in Ireland, with less than one-third of the population (27.3 per cent) living in urban areas and over 70 per cent in rural areas.
{{Bar graph
| title = Largest towns in Donegal (2022 Census)
| data_max = 25,000
| bar_width = 30
| label_type = Town
| data_type = Population
| label1 = [[Letterkenny]]
| data1 = 22,549
| label2 = [[Buncrana]]
| data2 = 6,971
| label3 = [[Ballybofey]]/[[Stranorlar]]
| data3 = 5,406
| label4 = [[Carndonagh]]
| data4 = 2,768
| label5 = [[Donegal Town]]
| data5 = 2,749
| label6 = [[Bundoran]]
| data6 = 2,599
| label7 = [[Ballyshannon]]
| data7 = 2,246
| label8 = [[Convoy, County Donegal|Convoy]]
| data8 = 1,702
| label9 = [[Lifford]]
| data9 = 1,613
| label10 = [[Muff, County Donegal|Muff]]
| data10 = 1,418
}}

===Irish language===
{{main|Ulster Irish}}
[[File:Bunbeg - R258 - geograph.org.uk - 1177841.jpg|thumb|Road signs in Irish in the [[Gweedore]] [[Gaeltacht]]]]

The Donegal [[Gaeltacht]] (Irish-speaking area) is the second-largest in Ireland. The version of the [[Irish language]] spoken in County Donegal is [[Ulster Irish]].

Of the Gaeltacht population of 24,744 (16% of the county's total population), 17,132 say they can speak Irish.<ref>[http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2011/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=GA&Geog_Code=02#T3_300 Donegal Gaeltacht statistics] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130526060346/http://census.cso.ie/sapmap2011/Results.aspx?Geog_Type=GA&Geog_Code=02 |date=26 May 2013 }}</ref> There are three Irish-speaking parishes: [[Gweedore]], [[The Rosses]] and [[Cloughaneely]]. Other Irish-speaking areas include [[Gaeltacht an Láir]]: [[Glencolmcille]], [[Fintown]], [[Fanad]] and [[Rosguill]], the islands of [[Arranmore]], [[Tory Island]] and [[Inishbofin, County Donegal|Inishbofin]]. Gweedore is the largest Irish-speaking parish, with over 5,000 inhabitants. All schools in the region use Irish as the language of instruction.

According to the 2022 Census, the number of people (aged three and over) who stated that they could speak Irish in Donegal was 59,130 (35.4% of the county's total population) compared with 56,738 in 2016.<ref name="Pop Summary 2022">{{cite web |title=Press Statement Census of Population 2022 - Summary Results Donegal |url=https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/pressreleases/2023pressreleases/pressstatementcensusofpopulation2022-summaryresultsdonegal/ |website=CSO |date=30 May 2023 |access-date=24 August 2023 |archive-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824171101/https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/pressreleases/2023pressreleases/pressstatementcensusofpopulation2022-summaryresultsdonegal/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Of these 7,750 said they spoke Irish daily while 4,533 spoke Irish weekly.<ref name="Pop Summary 2022"/>