Athlone is most romantic place in Ireland
It's official – Athlone residents have a soft spot for romance!
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, a new study has found that the most romantic people in Ireland live in Athlone, aptly situated in the heart of the country.
Of the 22 largest cities and towns surveyed by Picodi.com, Athlone topped the list when it came to searching for “romantic” keywords online.
The list consisted of terms like 'Valentine’s Day', 'love confession', 'flowers', 'love', and others which one would associate with Valentine’s Day.
In the run-up to this day of romance, the frequency of searches for these queries naturally increases in the whole of Ireland. However, in some places, the interest in planning a pleasant surprise for a significant other is a lot more pronounced than others.
After an analysis of Google’s figures, it turns out that the most romantic Irish people live in Athlone, where the increase in popularity of queries connected to Valentine’s Day was the highest. The next most romantic locations were Waterford city and Tralee, Co Kerry, according to the report.
However, Athlone's romantic ways do not appear to extend across Westmeath, with Mullingar placed 13th on the list. Elsewhere in the Midlands, Portlaoise took a respectable sixth place when it came to romance.
At the other end of the scale, residents of Swords in Co Dublin seem to be the least interested in Valentine’s Day and all connected to it, followed by Ennis, Co Clare and Bray, Co Wicklow.
The research by Picodi.com was based on a comparison of the increase in popularity of various keywords during the period of January-February 2019, according to Google archived data.
The full list is as follows: