More about Ballymoney

The area is in a central location in the North East of Northern Ireland. Ballymoney benefits from lying on the main A26 linking the borough to the M2 and M1 motorways to the south and to the A2 in the northwest and is within 50 miles of three main airports and the seaports at Larne and Belfast. Ballymoney also lies on the Belfast-Londonderry railway line linking it to the main Belfast-Dublin economic corridor. Express bus and train services depart Ballymoney, on a regular basis daily, for Belfast.

The area’s population has grown from 26,894 in 2001 to 29,225 in 2007 with one-third of the population of the borough living near or within the town of Ballymoney. The current population represents 1.7% of the population of Northern Ireland and since 2001 the borough has enjoyed a constant population growth rate of 1.7% per annum, as a result of both positive natural change and a net inward migration to the borough.

The age composition of the population closely reflects the average for Northern Ireland as a whole, with the proportion of young people declining marginally to 22% of the population and whilst small increases in the percentage of the population of working age in the borough have been recorded the percentage of pensioners living in the borough has remained relatively constant in recent years. Although the population of the borough is continually increasing the population density remains relatively low with 70 people per sq km. The number of homes in the borough is currently 11,743 although Ballymoney has a total catchment of almost 75,500 homes within 30 minutes travelling distance from the town.

The area has an economically active workforce of approximately 77% of the working age population (c.f. 72% for NI), or around 15,500. The area is noted for its high proportion of self-employed and small businesses. At 1.5% unemployment is significantly lower than the average for Northern Ireland of 2.2% and the borough has been enjoying a falling unemployment rate in recent times.

Unemployment in the Borough reflects a high incidence of part time farming, rather than structural unemployment, with a low level of long-term unemployed although the borough has been designated as a Targeting Social Need (TSN) area. Percentage of working population by industry of employment Ballymoney compared with the Northern Ireland Average Agriculture is very important to the Borough and Ballymoney Town is heavily dependent on its hinterland. There are 732 farms in the borough with an average size of 38.0 hectares, which, although they are similar in size to the NI average, record higher than average (NI) turnover per farm. There are 1,265 VAT registered business located in the area of which 41% are related to agriculture. The Borough has some well-established manufacturing businesses and employment levels in this sector at 13.8% are above the NI average: Its particular strength in the manufacturing sector lies in engineering.

On the other hand the percentage of the working population employed in the service sectors in the borough at 73.5% is below the NI average of 80.8% and public sector employment at 4% is under half the NI average.

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