Latest: Census shows Government 'totally uncaring' of low paid, working adults forced to live with parents

Latest:  The latest Census figures show hearly 500,000 adults are living with their parents.

Latest: Census shows Government 'totally uncaring' of low paid, working adults forced to live with parents

Update 5.15pm: The latest Census figures show hearly 500,000 adults are living with their parents.

"The 2016 Census figures released by the CSO today make stark reading They show that nearly half a million adults over 18 years of age are living with their parents. This is an increase of 4.4%," said Labour's Joe Costello.

"Nearly half or 215,000 were at work and a staggering 58.6% were male adults.

"The quality of life for young adult working males, in particular, has deteriorated sharply in recent years. The shortage of affordable housing and the prevalence of low paid employment is playing havoc with young people’s lives."

He went on to criticise comments made by the Taoiseach on television last night.

"Last night on the Vincent Browne Program on TV3, the new Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, admitted that his Government would meet none of its targets on housing and homelessness during its lifetime.

"Thus, a generation of Irish youth which get up early in the morning and goes to work each day will continue to face the prospect of living with their parents and never having a place of their own.

"His further statement on the same program is even more worrying. He declared that it is belief that those working on the minimum wage which is only €9.25 per hour constitute ‘middle Ireland.’

"This is indeed cold comfort for young working adults. It demonstrates that the Taoiseach is totally ignorant or totally uncaring of what people in poorly-paid employment, compelled to live their parents experience."

Update: The CSO’s latest batch of stats from last year’s census show the number of married people is up 5% in five years, and they now make up 48% of the population.

There were 9% more separated and divorced people in 2016 than when the last census was taken in 2011.

More highlights from the CSO latest Households and Families publication

Single ... 

In April 2016, 41.1% of the Irish population aged 15 and over, accounting for 1,544,862 people, were single. Over one-third of single people (36%) lived in cities, 34% lived in rural areas with remaining 30% in urban areas excluding cities.

Married ...

The number of married people increased by 4.9% to 1,792,151. Married people (including remarriages) made up 47.7% of the population in 2016. By age 33, females were more likely to be married than single, while it was 35 for males.

Same-sex civil partnerships ...

4,226 people indicated that they were in a registered same-sex civil partnership (the first time this category was recorded on an Irish census). The majority of these - 2,526 (59.8%), were male.

Separated / divorced / remarried ...

The number of separated and divorced people increased to 222,073 (+8.9%) since April 2011. There were 127,149 separated or divorced women and 94,924 males. The peak age for separation and divorce was 53. One fifth of divorced/separated men lived in households with children, compared to over 50% of women.

Census 2016 also showed that 61,729 persons were remarried, an increase of 17.1%, below the 27% increase seen between 2006-2011.

Widows and widowers ...

There were 196,227 widowed persons, comprising 5.2% of the population aged 15 and over, compared to 5.3% in 2011. However, the actual number of widowed persons increased by 5,168 over the period.

Number of families increases ... 

Since Census 1996, the number of families in the State has increased by 51%, and stood at 1,218,370 in April 2016. Among families with children, the numbers of married couples, cohabiting couples and one parent families all increased, with cohabiting couples showing an increase of 25.4%.

Decline in family size slows ... 

The number of families with children increased by 28,455 to 862,721. Looking at larger families, 62,192 families had 4 or more children, 4,352 had 6 or more, while the average number of children per family, which had been declining between 1996 and 2006, remained unchanged at 1.38 children.

One-parent families more likely to be female, while fathers were much older ... 

Of the 218,817 one-parent families recorded in Census 2016, the vast majority (189,112) were female. Over half (125,840) had just one child. Fathers in this family type tended to be much older, with 68% being aged 50 or over, compared to just 38.3% of mothers. Fewer than half of parents in one-parent families were at work (47.8%), compared to 70.2% of two-parent families.

More men than women among adults living with parents ... 

Census 2016 recorded 458,874 persons aged 18 and over living with their parents, an increase of 4.4%, with 58.6% being male. Fewer than half (215,088) were at work, while 66,516 were unemployed and 152,269 were students.

Almost 400,000 people lived alone ... 

In April 2016, 399,815 people indicated that they lived alone, of whom some 204,296 were female and 195,519 male. Of those living alone, 39.2% were aged 65 and over. Over half (52.6%) were single, while just under 1 in 4 were widowed. Of those aged 25-49 living alone, males accounted for some 60%. This was more pronounced in rural areas, where 65.9% of those living alone were male. Men were also more likely to be single – 62%, compared to 43.6% for women, but less likely to be widowed – 12.5%, compared to 36.6% of women.

Earlier: New analysis of the 2016 census has indicated that the population of Ireland could be larger than we think.

Geodirectory says the actual number of vacant houses is half that of the official figures - although the CSO disputes this.

The discrepancy could mean our population of 4.7 million is underestimated by as much as 150,000, given the average household size is 2.75 people.

Justin Gleeson of the All Ireland Research Observatory at NUI Maynooth says the findings are significant.

"By putting all this additional information into the reasons for the vacancy, that was the first time we got to understand why these properties were vacant," he said.

"I think the overall message here is that in the true sense, we don’t have 180,000-odd vacant properties across the country, it’s much more down around the 96-100,000 figure."

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