The Ennistymon region has the highest rate of neoplasm-related deaths of any area in the country.
The startling finding is contained in a new report which has examined deaths and cause of death nationwide across the year of 2021.
The Central Statistics Office’s study shows 948 deaths occurred in Clare in 2021 – of which 222 were in the Ennis Local Electoral Area while 217 were in Kilrush, 194 were in Shannon, 158 were in Ennistymon and the remaining 157 were in the Killaloe region.
Neoplasms, which are abnormal masses of tissue that can be cancerous, accounted for more deaths than any other factor countywide with the exception of Kilrush where the main cause of death was diseases of the circulatory system.
Indeed, the Ennistymon Local Electoral Area had a higher rate of neoplasm-related deaths than anywhere else in the country in 2021, followed by Belmullet in County Mayo and Connemara North in Galway.
Kilrush had the fifth highest death rate nationwide, at over 997 per 100,000 of the population, and the 10th highest death rate for mental and behavioural disorders nationwide, at almost 276 per 100,000 of the population.
The West Clare town did however have the highest average age of death in the county at over 79 years, with Killaloe’s being just under 79 while the average in Ennistymon was under 77, and Ennis and Shannon each had an average age of death of just over 76.
