The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released figures from the Census 2022, showing the preliminary population on Sunday 3 April 2022 as 5,123,536 persons. This is the first time that a census has recorded a population of more than five million people in over 170 years. The population increased by 361,671 persons, or 8%, since April 2016.
The housing stock in Ireland increased by over 120,000 units (6%) between 2016 and 2022.
The number of occupied households increased by over 150,000 (9%) while the number of vacant dwellings fell by over 16,500 (-9%).
At a State level the Census vacancy rate has fallen to less than 8% in 2022, down from over 9% in 2016 and 12% in 2011.
Commenting on the release, statistician Deirdre Lynch said: “This preliminary Census publication is based on the Census of Population taken on the night of Sunday, 3 April 2022. This is the first publication by the CSO providing insights into Ireland’s Census of Population and housing figures for 2022. Our analysis shows where these changes have occurred across the country, with some interesting trends compared with the previous census six years ago.”
The housing stock growth represents a marked increase compared with the intercensal period between 2011 and 2016 when the housing stock only increased by 8,800 or less than one percent.
The number of dwellings categorised as vacant declined from 183,312 in 2016 to 166,752 in 2022. This represents a fall of 9%.