Today, the Irish Examiner published a health analysis report called “How sick is your county?” The report, which compares counties across a wide range of medical issues, shows that County Wexford has the fourth highest suicide rate in Ireland.
Statistics
Here are some of the statistics that were released in the report:
- 88.3% of people from County Wexford stated that they were in very good health.
- 1.6% of people said that they were in very bad health.
- 20,134 people in County Wexford have some form of disability (13.85%). That includes disabilities such as autism, chronic illness, physical disabilities, vision loss and hearing loss.
- 3.9% of the population are providing unpaid personal help to a relative or friend with a long-term illness / disability.
- 50.6% of newborn infants are breastfed. This is below the national average of 55%.
- Wexford has the 14th highest incidence rate of lung cancer in Ireland.
- We have the 4th lowest incidence rate of breast cancer.
- We have the 3rd lowest incidence rate of prostate cancer.
- 42-49% of people have a medical card.
- There are 45-50 GPs for every 100’000 people.
- 4.1% of infants born in County Wexford are considered to be of “low birth weight.” Fortunately, this is well below the national average of 5.4%.
- The county has a live birth death rate of 0.38%.
- 224 out of 100’000 people are treated for alcohol problem use.
- 15% of the population is obese. This is about 2% higher than Dublin and 1% lower than Sligo and Leitrim.
- Wexford has a suicide rate of 14.8 per 100’000 people.
