Tradional Irish family household in decline as cohabiting increases, census shows

Fewer than one in five households in Dublin City are now made up of the traditional family of husband, wife and children, a new report from the Central Statistics Office reveals. (Download the report here).

The information is contained in Census 2006 Volume 3 - Household Composition, Family Units and Fertility, which gives further detailed results of the census conducted on 23 April 2006.

The report shows that there were 477,705 households composed of the traditional family in the State in 2006, an increase of only 3.3 per cent since 2002. The number of these traditional households declined in all the main cities between 2002 and 2006.

The report also reveals that there was a continued increase in the number of one-person households – up 51,877 or 18.7 per cent since 2002. One-person households, which accounted for 22.4 per cent of all households in the State in 2006, were the predominant household type in all five cities.

Nearly 56 per cent of one-person households were occupied by single (never-married) persons; a further 26.7 per cent by widowed persons; 14.4 per cent by separated (including divorced) persons and 3 per cent by those describing their marital status as married. Persons aged 65 years and over were the occupants of 36.8 per cent of the one-person households in 2006 – down from 41.0 per cent in 2002.

The total number of cohabiting couples was 121,800 in 2006 up from 77,600 in 2002 – by far the fastest growing type of family unit. Cohabiting couples represented 11.6 per cent of all family units in 2006 compared with 8.4 per cent in 2002. Almost two thirds of them were couples without children.

Overall the number of “children” living with one or both parents increased by 1.1 per cent from 1,470,800 in 2002 to 1,486,431 in 2006. However, the number of “children” in their twenties living with their parents actually fell from 304,353 to 280,065 over the same period, while “children” in their thirties still living at home also fell from 70,707 to 65,693.

Males continue to account for nearly two-thirds of persons in their thirties living with their parents.