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Major house building in Meath and Kildare

A quarter of the housing stock in Kildare and Meath was built in the six-year period 1996 to 2002. In the towns of Sallins,Co. Kildare and Ratoath, Co. Meath 70 per cent of the dwellings were built during this period.

This information is contained in the final report of Census 2002 - Volume 13 - Housing, which gives further detailed results of the census conducted on 28 April 2002. The report provides information on housing characteristics for detailed territorial divisions in the country (see Editor’s note).

At the overall State level approximately 197,000 dwellings, representing 15 per cent of the total housing stock of 1.28million dwellings, were built in the intercensal period 1996 to 2002. This represents an annual average of close to 33,000 dwellings compared with 19,000 in the previous five-year period.

 

Household formation outstrips population change

Household formation has outstripped population change in the period since 1961 when the population of the State was at its lowest level of 2.8 million. During this period the urban population has grown by 1.5 per cent per annum while the number of private households in urban areas has grown by 2.4 per cent per annum. The corresponding average annual increases for rural areas were 0.1 per cent for population and 0.7 per cent for households.

 

More apartment living

The 2002 census identified 110,000 occupied flats or apartments representing 8.6 per cent of all dwelling types – up from 6.5 per cent in 1991. A third of these apartments were built since 1991. Apartment living varied considerably from county to county, however. Dublin City had the highest proportion – 29 per cent of its housing stock – while South Dublin (2.6%) had the lowest proportion.

Four out of five houses in rural areas were detached while in urban areas semi-detached dwellings, representing 40 per cent of total dwellings, were the most common type of accommodation followed by terraced houses (27%).

 

Owner occupation still dominates

Owner occupied dwellings continue to be the most prevalent occupancy status. While the number of such dwellings increased by 22.7 per cent (from 807,000 to 991,000) between 1991 and 2002, their share of all housing units actually fell from 80.2 per cent to 77.4 per cent – the first time such a decline was recorded in recent decades.

The number of Local Authority rented dwellings has declined at each census since 1961. At that stage there were over 124,000 Local Authority rented dwellings, representing 18.4 per cent of the housing stock. By 2002 the number of Local Authority dwellings had fallen to 88,000, representing a share of 6.9 per cent.


Doubling of number of private rented dwellings

 

The number of private rented dwellings almost doubled (from 71,000 to 141,000) between 1991 and 2002, following declines observed during the previous thirty years. One in nine dwellings at State level are now rented privately.

More than a quarter of households in Galway City, Carrick-on-Shannon and Skibbereen lived in private rented dwellings. At the other end of the scale, only 2.6 per cent of dwellings in Portmarnock were rented privately.

Average weekly rents paid for furnished or partly furnished private accommodation varied from nearly €250 in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown to less than €100 on average for the three Ulster counties Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan.

Dwellings have more rooms

Over three-quarters of private dwellings had five or more rooms* in 2002 while the corresponding proportion was 40 per cent in 1961. However, the census results contain some evidence of increased numbers of 1, 2 and 3 roomed dwellings being built since 1991 following falls during the previous three decades.

The average number of persons per room has declined from 0.9 in 1961 to 0.5 in 2002.

* The number of rooms excludes bathrooms, toilets, kitchenettes, utility rooms, consulting rooms, offices, shops, halls, landings and rooms that can only be used for storage such as cupboards.

 

Over 400,000 individual septic tanks

Of the 1.28 million dwellings in the State over 400,000 made use of individual septic tanks in 2002. Most of these (94%) were in rural areas where over three-quarters of dwellings used this method of sewage disposal. A further 19 per cent made use of public schemes. In urban areas 93 per cent of dwellings were serviced by public schemes.

While drinking water supplied by public mains was the predominant source in rural areas, the census identified 135,000
(27%) rural dwellings with a private source of water other than a group scheme.

 

Editor’s note

The publication Census 2002 - Principal Socio-economic Results, released on 15 October 2003, contains a summary at State level of data from Volumes 5 - 7, 9 - 10 and 13 of the detailed census reports. The publication released today, Volume 13, which is the final report of the census, provides figures for housing characteristics at a more detailed level.

All published tables from Census 2002 are being made available on the CSO web site (www.cso.ie).

 

For copies of the publication contact:

Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork
or
Government Publications Sales Office, Sun Alliance House, Molesworth Street, Dublin 2.
Price: €15.00
Copies can also be downloaded from the CSO website (see below).

 

For further information contact:

Central Statistics Office, Ardee Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6.

Census Inquiries (01) 498 4000 ext. 4284-4288.
Fax (01) 498 4268
E-mail census@cso.ie
Internet http://www.cso.ie/census/Vol13.htm

 

22 April 2004

- ENDS -

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