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In this section we're going to take an in-depth look at County Westmeath or the 'Lake County' as it is sometimes known.
Westmeath
This image shows a map of Ireland with the four provinces marked out in different colours and highlighting County Westmeath in dark blue. Do you know which province is which?
Westmeath
Westmeath
This image shows a map of Ireland with the four provinces marked out in different colours and highlighting County Westmeath in dark blue. Do you know which province is which?
Westmeath is one of twelve counties that make up the province of Leinster. It became an independent county in the 1540s after initially being part of County Meath.
As you would imagine for a county located in the midlands of Ireland, it shares a border with many other counties. They are Longford to the north, Roscommon to the west, Offaly to the south, Meath to the east and Cavan to the northeast.
The county is 53kilometres long from east to west and 43kilometres in width. It covers an area of over 100,000 hectares.
Population
According to the 2006 census, there are 79,346 people living in County Westmeath compared to 71,858 in 2002. This shows a significant increase of 7,488 or 10.4%.
Most of this growth in population has centred on Westmeath's two largest towns, Mullingar and Athlone. Mullingar's population has increased by 18% to 18,529 and Athlone's has risen by 23% to 17,544 since 2002.
At present there are slightly more men living in Westmeath than women. Of the 79,346 living there, 39,819 are male while the remaining 39,527 are female.