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Major house building in Meath and Fingal


More than a quarter of all occupied private dwellings in Counties Meath and Fingal were built between 2001 and 2006. Three out of four private residences in Stamullen, Co. Meath were built in this period while the corresponding proportion for Lusk in Fingal was 62 per cent.


This information is contained in the latest report of Census 2006 - Volume 6 - Housing, which gives further detailed results of the census conducted on 23rd April 2006. The report provides information on housing characteristics for detailed territorial divisions in the country (see Editor's note).


At the overall State level approximately 249,000 occupied private dwellings, representing 17.1 per cent of all private dwellings occupied at the time of the 2006 census, were built in the period 2001 to 2006. The corresponding figure for the previous five-year period was 155,000 dwellings.


More apartment living


Apartments, flats and bed-sits accounted for over 10 per cent of all occupied private dwellings in the State in April 2006 compared with 8.6 per cent four years earlier. The 2006 census identified 148,600 occupied flats, apartments or bed-sits -  an increase of 34.6 per cent compared with the 2002 census results. Apartments, flats and bed-sits accounted for 31 per cent of occupied dwellings in Dublin City with nearly one in four Dublin City dwellers living in this category of accommodation.


Four out of five occupied houses in rural areas were detached while in urban areas semi-detached dwellings, representing 37.8 per cent of total occupied dwellings, were the most common type of accommodation followed by terraced houses (25.5%).


Owner occupation still dominates


Owner occupation continues to be the most prevalent housing occupancy status. While the number of owner occupied dwellings increased by 10.2 per cent (from 990,700 to 1,092,000) between 2002 and 2006, their share of all housing units actually fell from 77.4 per cent to 74.7 per cent - continuing the decline observed for the first time between 1991 and 2002.


The number of dwellings rented privately or from a voluntary body stood at 195,797 in 2006, representing 13.4 per cent of total dwellings. Comparing this with the number of private rented dwellings in 2002, when voluntary bodies were not separately distinguished, indicates an increase of 38.4 per cent.


Average weekly rents paid for furnished or partly furnished private accommodation varied from nearly €275 in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown to less than €115 in Donegal and Leitrim.



Owner occupancy low among non-Irish


The rate of owner occupancy in households headed by Polish-born persons, who were usually resident here at the time of the 2006 census, was 4.9 per cent compared with nearly 80 per cent for those headed by Irish-born persons and 71.3 per cent for those headed by persons born in Britain.


About three out of four households in which the head was born in Poland or Lithuania were private rented dwellings. The corresponding figures for African- and Asian-headed households were 56.3 per cent and 49.6 per cent, respectively.


About 45 per cent of the Polish and Lithuanian-headed dwellings were built in the ten years before the census.


Decline in share of one-off houses in rural areas


The share of one-off houses in rural areas (i.e. detached houses with an individual septic tank or treatment system) declined from 28.1 per cent in 2002 to 27.1 per cent in 2006. Nearly one in four of the 396,000 one-off houses in rural areas distinguished in the 2006 census was built since 1996.


Vacant dwellings


There were 266,000 vacant dwellings in 2006 representing 15 per cent of the total housing stock. Of these, 175,000 were houses, 42,000 were flats and 50,000 were classified as holiday homes. County Leitrim had the highest percentage of vacant dwellings (29.3%) while 11.7 per cent of dwellings in Dublin City were vacant at the time of the census.


Wide disparity in broadband access


One in five homes in Ireland had broadband access to the internet in 2006 - however the proportion varied considerably across the State. Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown had the highest access rates at just under 40 per cent while County Leitrim had the lowest at 7.8 per cent. Less than four out of ten homes in Limerick City had access to the internet - the lowest
access rate in the State.


Editor's note


The publication Census 2006 - Principal Demographic Results, released on 29 March 2007, contains a summary at State level of data from Volumes 1 - 6, 9 and 13 of the detailed census reports. The publication released today, Volume 6, gives corresponding figures at a more detailed geographical level.


All published tables from Census 2006 are being made available on the CSO website (www.cso.ie). Tables at Electoral Division, Local Electoral Area and small town level are being made available exclusively on the CSO web site.


For copies of the publication contact:
Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork. 021- 4535011
or
Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.
Price: €15 [Copies can also be downloaded from the CSO website (see below)].


For further information contact:


Shaun McLaughlin on 01-895 1474 or Deirdre Cullen on 01-895 1334.
Central Statistics Office, Swords Business Campus, Balheary Road, Swords, Co. Dublin.
Census Enquiries: (01) 895 1460/61/63/66
Fax: (01) 895 1399
E-mail: census@cso.ie
Internet: www.cso.ie


16 August 2007


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