Castlebar is the county town of, and at the centre of, County Mayo in Ireland. It is Mayo's largest town by population, though Ballina is geographically a larger urban area. The town's population exploded in the late 1990s, increasing by one-third in just six years, though this massive growth has slowed down greatly in recent years. A campus of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and the Country Life section of the National Museum of Ireland are two important local amenities. The town is connected by railway to Dublin and the neighbouring Mayo towns of Westport and Ballina. The town has several small satellite villages around it, such as Breaffy. The main route by road is the N5. Its economy is primarily service-based. The population at the 2006 census was 11,891 (including environs).

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