More and more young people in County Roscommon eager to escape to Australia
The pull of Australia is the strongest it has been in over a decade. Pic: iStock
New research from USIT, Ireland's leading specialist in student travel, work abroad and intern/trainee programmes, has revealed which Irish counties are the most desperate to escape Down Under, by analysing Google search demand against the number of young people living in each county with County Roscommon coming in at number 13.
The pull of Australia is the strongest it has been in over a decade. Around 13,500 people moved from Ireland to Australia in the year to April 2025, up 27% on the year before and almost three times the 2023 figure, according to the CSO. It is the highest number since 2013, and much of it comes down to young people heading off on a working holiday visa.
To map the trend county by county, USIT looked at a full year of Google searches across various keyword-related terms, from "working holiday visa Australia", "work travel visa Australia" and "visa why Australia" to "jobs in Australia", "moving to Sydney", "cost of living Australia" and more.
Instead of the usual per 100,000 people approach, USIT measured each county's search demand against the number of people aged 18 to 35 living there using census data. They are the ones who can actually make the move, since Australia's main working holiday visa (subclass 417) is open to Irish citizens up to the age of 35. Focusing on them gives a fairer, like-for-like comparison of where young people are keenest on a life Down Under.
In Roscommon, that works out at 169.4 searches per 10,000 young people, and a top escape index score of 46.6 out of 100.
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.
Leitrim takes second place, with 280 searches per 10,000 young people and an escape index of 77.1 out 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.
Galway takes third place, with 226 searches per 10,000 young people and an escape index of 62.1 out of 100. 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.
After Dublin, Galway had more people searching than anywhere else, averaging 1,400 searches a month over the past year. Even when you take its large young population into account, it still ranks near the top. For a county known for festivals, travel and young people always coming and going, this won't surprise many.
