The figures, based on the Census 2011 results, show that 474,788 people were renting as of April 2011, up significantly on the 2006 figure of 323,007.
This led to a sharp drop in the overall home ownership rate, which fell from 74.7% to 69.7%.
The new publication, titled ‘Profile 4 The Roof over our Heads – Housing in Ireland’ examined over 1.6 million permanent dwellings occupied on April 10th 2011, along with 289,451 dwellings, which were identified as being vacant at the time of the Census.
There was a marked increase in the number of people living in apartments during the period with 177,587 occupied in 2011, an increase of 27% on the 2006 figure of 139,872.
The results show there were 1,994,845 dwellings in the State at the time of the survey, which represents a rise of 225,232 (12.7%) on the housing stock from the 2006 Census – giving an average annual growth rate of 2.4% during the inter-censal period. In comparison, the previous inter-censal period from 2002 to 2006 saw an increase of 309,560 (21.2%) in the housing stock.
The new figures also show that the number of dwellings that were owned through an existing mortgage or loan stood at 583,148, down marginally from 593,513 in 2006. Of these 50,792 households were headed by a person who was either unemployed or looking for work, representing 8.7% of all homes with a loan or mortgage.
Within this group 25,921 households (51%) did not have anyone within the household who was at work.
The number of vacant dwellings totalled 289,451 in April 2011, of which 168,427 were vacant houses, 61,629 were vacant apartments and 59,395 were vacant holiday homes.
The number of vacant houses fell by 4 per cent from 174,935 in 2006 to 168,427 in 2011. The most significant percentage declines in the number of vacant houses occurred in the Dublin area, with falls in excess of 30% recorded.
However the number of vacant apartments rose by 48% over the same five year period from 41,598 to 61,629, with increases recorded in every county.
