The BMW region as set out in Chapter 1 covers a total of thirteen counties and encompasses the three Regional Authority NUTS III areas: Border, Midlands, and West. The BMW Region accounts for 47% of the land area of Ireland, 26.5% of the population and 19% of Ireland’s GDP. The Central Statistics Office (CSO) estimates that the population of the BMW Region is 1.132 million in 2006 compared with 1.038 million in 2002. Details of the population based on April 2006 data are included in Table 3.1.
Table 3.1: Regional Population Estimates |
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| Region | Population 2002 | Population 2006 | Actual Change 2002-2006 | % Change 2002-2006 |
| BMW | 1,038,194 | 1,132,090 |
93,896 |
9.0 |
| State | 3,917,203 | 4,234,925 |
317,722 |
8.1 |
| Border | 432,500 | 465,200 |
32,700 |
7.6 |
| Midlands | 225,400 | 252,400 |
27,000 |
11.9 |
| West | 380,300 | 416,200 |
35,900 |
9.4 |
| EU 15 | 377,187,646 | 384,831,370 |
7,643,724 |
2.0 |
| EU 25 | 452,063,917 | 458,973,024 |
6,909,107 |
1.5 |
Source: Source: CSO, April 2006 and Eurostat
