These Irish counties are the most desperate to escape to Australia

This guest article is by Legacy Communications, an Irish-based communications agency.

More and more young Irish people are dreaming of a life Down Under, so our team decided to dig into the data and find out exactly which counties are the most desperate to escape to Australia. We analysed Google search demand against the number of young people living in each county.

It seems half of young Ireland has its eye on Australia right now, and the figures back it up. Working holiday visa grants to Irish citizens have shot up from just 3,697 in 2020-2021 to 24,165 in 2024-2025, rising every year, and now more than six times higher than at the start of the decade.

It is not hard to see the appeal. Ireland is one of the cloudiest countries in Europe, with rain falling on anywhere from around 150 days a year in the drier east to more than 220 in the west. Australia could hardly be more different. Sydney is often said to enjoy roughly 340 days of sunshine a year, Perth is one of the sunniest capital cities on the planet, and even the Australian winter is milder than a typical Irish summer.

But where is all this longing strongest?

To find out, we looked into a full year of Google searches across all the telltale terms, from searches like 'working holiday visa Australia', 'work travel visa Australia' and 'visa whv Australia' to 'jobs in Australia', 'moving to Sydney', 'cost of living Australia' and plenty more.

But here's where we did things a little differently. Instead of the usual per-100,000-people approach, we measured each county's search demand against the number of 18-to-35-year-olds living there. After all, they're the ones who can actually make the leap. Australia's main working holiday visa (subclass 417) is only open to Irish citizens up to the age of 35.

Ireland's top 5 counties most desperate to escape to Australia

1. Longford

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, finishing well clear of second place.

2. Leitrim

Leitrim takes second place, with 280 searches per 10,000 young people aged 18 to 35 and an escape index of 77.1out of 100. The result is all the more striking because Leitrim is Ireland's least populous county, home to the smallest cohort of 18- to 35-year-olds anywhere in the country. Even with that tiny base, the appetite for Australia among its young people is the second strongest nationally.

3. Galway

Galway takes third place, with 226 searches per 10,000 young people aged 18 to 35 and an escape index of 62.1 out of 100, making it the highest-placed of Ireland's larger counties. 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. Galway came second only to Dublin, with 1,400 average searches. Even once we account for its large young population, it stays near the top. For a place famous for festivals, travel and young people always coming and going, nobody will be surprised.

4. Dublin

Dublin ranks fourth, with 222 searches per 10,000 young people and an escape index of 61.1 out of 100. The capital has by far the most searches of any county, around 8,590 a year, more than four times any other county. But it also has the youngest people, with more than 386,562 aged 18 to 35.

5. Wexford

Wexford comes fifth, with 213 searches per 10,000 young people aged 18 to 35 and an escape index of 58.7 out of 100. The county is home to around 31,878 people aged 18 to 35, and a large share of them are looking into a move to Australia. For many young people in the sunny southeast, the pull of Australian sun and work now seems stronger than the reasons to stay. It is the highest-ranked county anywhere along the east and south coast.

The next five counties eager to escape

The appetite for Australia does not stop at the top five. Donegal comes sixth, with an escape index score of 49.6. As one of Ireland's wettest and windiest counties, its longing for a Bondi Beach summer hardly needs explaining.

Meath lands just behind in seventh, with 180 searches per 10,000 young people aged 18 to 35, rising to 358 per 10,000 among those aged 20 to 29. Carlow takes eighth place with an escape index score of 49.5, with its young people looking ready to swap the giant Brownshill Dolmen, one of the heaviest standing stones in Europe, for the southern hemisphere.

Limerick takes ninth, with 178 searches per 10,000 people aged 18 to 35 and an escape index of 49.0. Kilkenny comes tenth with an escape score of 48.4, with a large young population of nearly 19,905 in this age group and clear signs that many are weighing up the move.

Thinking about your own escape to Australia?

Wherever in Ireland you are searching from, USIT has helped thousands of Irish students and graduates make the move to work in Australia. From processing your working holiday visa before you go to unlimited backpacker job placements when you land – we take care of all the details.

Sources: https://data.cso.ie/