This publication is part of a series of results from Census 2022. More thematic publications will be published throughout 2023 as outlined in the Census 2022 Publication Schedule.
For census purposes, a family is defined as a couple with or without children, or a one-parent unit with one or more children. Family members must be usual residents of the relevant household.
There were 1,279,951 families in the State on Census Night in 2022, an increase of 5% since 2016.
The number of cohabiting couples without children rose by 20% while the number of married couples with no children increased by only 8%.
There was a marginal decrease in the number of one-parent mother with children families (-1%) compared with a rise recorded among one-parent father with children families (+13%, +3,804 units).
However, there were over five times more one-parent mother families (186,487) than one-parent father families (33,509), a ratio of 5.6 to 1.
This ratio was higher in both 2011 and 2016 when there were over six times more one-parent mother than one-parent father family units.
For census purposes, family cycle broadly identifies families at different stages based predominantly on whether there were children in the family and the age of the children. For more details, please see the Background Notes.
Adult families (i.e. families where the eldest child was 20 years or over) were the most prevalent family cycle type in 2022, at 27% of all family units.
Pre-school and early-school family cycle types accounted for 18% of all family units, down by 14% compared with 2016.
Retired family cycle units made up 12% of all families, up by 26% since 2016.
The number of families recorded in the State on Census Night in 2022 increased by 59% since 1996.
While the number of families grew in the 1996 to 2022 period, the average number of children per family fell between 1996 (1.82) and 2006 (1.41) before levelling off in 2016 (1.38) and 2022 (1.34).
| Number of families | Average number of children | |
| 1996 | 806835 | 1.82 |
| 2002 | 924464 | 1.59 |
| 2006 | 1053180 | 1.41 |
| 2011 | 1179210 | 1.38 |
| 2016 | 1218370 | 1.38 |
| 2022 | 1279951 | 1.34 |
In contrast, the number of families with four or more children decreased by 7% in the six years to 2022 and by 10% since Census 2011.
The average number of children per family varied across CSO Local Electoral Areas and ranged from 1.67 in Tallaght South to 0.81 in South East Inner City Dublin.
At county level, family units in Dublin City had an average of 1.11 children in contrast to Monaghan where the average number of children per family was 1.49 in 2022.
In 2022, there were 317,896 families who rented their accommodation from a private landlord, a local authority or a voluntary/cooperative body. This was an increase of 10,102 (+3%) since 2016.
The number of one-parent families with children in all rental accommodation increased by 5% since 2016 (+4,197 families).
There were 20% more one-parent father families with children who were renting than six years previously.
The amount of married couples without children in all rental accommodation increased by 17%.
There were nearly 13,000 (+38%) more cohabiting couples with children who owned their accommodation either with or without a mortgage.
The largest increase in the number of family units in rental accommodation was in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, up 10% (+1,324 more families renting) compared with 2016.
In contrast, there were fewer families renting in Limerick City and County than in 2016, down 3% (-298 family units renting).
Just over 87% of householders in families stated they were Irish citizens while 12% declared non-Irish citizenship.
Among non-Irish headed families, the three highest proportions were UK (17%), Polish (17%) and Romanian (7%).
The average number of children in Irish-headed families was 1.36 compared with 1.22 among families headed by a non-Irish citizen.
There was a slightly higher proportion of families with no children headed by a non-Irish citizen (32%) than among Irish-headed family units without children (31%).
There were proportionately more family units with three children headed by an Irish citizen (13%) when compared with families with three children headed by a non-Irish citizen (9%).
Nearly 29,000 families had more children than bedrooms in their home. This accounted for 2% of all families.
This was particularly pronounced for families with four or more children.
Three out of five families with five or more children had four or fewer bedrooms (7,931 families or 60% of all families with five or more children).
Over 12,500 families with four children or more had three bedrooms or fewer. This was 28% of all families with four or more children.
| Households with fewer bedrooms than children | Households with bedrooms ≥ children | |
| 2 children in the family unit | 2167 | 321629 |
| 3 children in the family unit | 6161 | 150999 |
| 4 children in the family unit | 12515 | 32331 |
| 5 or more children in the family unit | 7931 | 5228 |
Census 2022 introduced a new question on internet use that included a section on devices used to access the internet. It should be noted that the data presented below represents counts of the different types of devices in each household and not the total number of devices in households.
Family units with no children had fewer types of devices compared with families with children.
Families with more than two children were less likely to have only one or two types of devices compared with families with no children or those with one child.
Just over one-fifth of family units with no children stated they had three types of devices in the household while almost one-quarter of families with three children had five types of devices in their home.
Almost one in three family units had a video game console in 2022.
When looking at the data for families with children, this figure rises to 40%.
Over half of family units with between three and five children had a video game console.
Just under 14% of families with no children had a video game console.
In 2022, there were 10,393 same-sex couples in Ireland.
This was a 72% increase compared with Census 2016 and was 157% higher than in 2011.
The largest increases in the number of same-sex couples since 2016 were in Meath, 152% (+194 couples) and in Roscommon, 143% (+40 couples).
Of these same-sex couples, 5,930 were male couples with the remaining 43% female.
Of the 20,786 persons in same-sex couples in 2022, 72% were Irish citizens and 28% were non-Irish citizens (5,758).
The total number of children in same-sex couple family units was 1,853, an increase of 86% compared with 2016.
Just under a third were only children within their family unit.
| 2016 | 2022 | |
| Household with at least 1 child | 317 | 563 |
| Household with at least 2 children | 182 | 403 |
| Household with at least 3 children | 62 | 106 |
| Household with at least 4 children | 30 | 35 |
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