Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources, 2023

Introduction

The following results on families and households have been derived using new CSO methods based on administrative data. While these approaches offer new insights, they are at an earlier stage of development compared to the IPEADS methodology for estimating the population. As a result, the estimates presented here should be considered less mature and are subject to a greater degree of uncertainty. Users should exercise particular caution in interpretation.

A Note on Family and Household Definitions

While IPEADS attempts to measure household and family structure using classifications similar to those of the Census, the methodologies are not directly comparable, as IPEADS relies on analysis of administrative data. For example, the family classification used can assign families into categories such as married couples, cohabiting couples, or one-parent families. Further disaggregation is not currently available.

In the case of households, two different methods are used to identify households based on administrative records. Future iterations of this release may incorporate additional or alternative methods. The approach to estimating families and households from administrative data remains under development, and several aspects will require further refinement.

Defining the Population

For IPEADS, the population was defined according to the methodology described here. Once the usually resident population is established, characteristics from the dataset were used to generate family estimates. For household estimates, only individuals for whom an Eircode could be assigned were included—this applied to over 99% of the usually resident population.

Family Estimates

The chart below displays the estimated count of family units by type in the 2023 IPEADS dataset. This data is part of a Frontier Release and should be interpreted with caution.

Married couples (with or without children) accounted for approximately 69% (915,915) of all family units in 2023.

Household Estimates

The chart below displays the estimated count of household units by size in 2023, using two different methods from IPEADS. The total number of household units was estimated at 1.75 million using Method 1 and 1.95 million using Method 2. For more details on these methodologies, refer to the accompanying methodological note. Note that these data are part of a Frontier Release and should be interpreted with caution.

Both Methods 1 and 2 found that one-person and two-person households were the most common.

• Method 1: Just over 400,000 (22.9%) of household units were one-person households, and just under 410,000 (23.4%) were two-person households.
• Method 2: Just under 525,000 (26.9%) were one-person households, and just under 455,000 (23.3%) were two-person households.