Nearly half a million adults still live with parents, Census shows

More than 450,000 adults are living with their parents, representing an increase of nearly 5 per cent on 2011, new data from the 2016 Census shows.

Some 400,000 people were living alone, while 41.1 per cent of the Irish population aged 15 and over, accounting for 1,544,862 people, were single, according to figures released on Thursday.

The Households and Families section of the Census shows there were 458,874 adults aged 18 and over living with a parent at the time the Census was taken in April 2016.

This is an increase of 19,396, or 4.4 per cent, on 2011, when the last Census was taken.

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Men accounted for 58.6 per cent of those living at home with their parents. In numbers, that is 268,944, which is a rise of 8,015 on 2011. The number of women in the cohort rose by 11,381 to 189,930 over the same period.

While there are 23,571 people aged 25 living at home, this falls to 11,299 by age 30.

On the urban-rural divide, 41.2 per cent of the group living at home with their parents were living in rural areas, compared with 37.3 per cent of the general population. A total of 215,088 were at work while 66,516 were unemployed, while a further 152,269 were students.

When examined separately for men and women, men were more likely to be at work (47.5%) than women (45.9 per cent) or be unemployed (17.8 per cent compared with 9.9 per cent of women).

On the other hand 39 per cent per cent of adult women living with a parent were students compared with only 29 per cent of men.

The number of adults, aged 18 years and over, who were working and still living at home increased by 19 per cent between 2011 and 2016, from 180,703 to 215,088.

The data also show:

- There were 1,218,370 families in the State on Census night last year, an increase of 3.3 per cent since 2011.

- The number of children per family remained unchanged at 1.38 children since the 2011 census.

- 41.1 per cent of the Irish population aged 15 and over, accounting for 1,544,862 people, were single.

- The number of married people increased by 4.9 per cent to 1,792,151.

- 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 number of separated and divorced people increased to 222,073 (+8.9 per cent) since April 2011.

- Since Census 1996, the number of families in the State has increased by 51 per cent, and stood at 1,218,370 in April 2016.

- 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 per cent were aged 65 and over.

Over half (52.6 per cent) were single, while just under 1 in 4 were widowed. Of those aged 25-49 living alone, males accounted for some 60 per cent. This was more pronounced in rural areas, where 65.9 per cent of those living alone were male.

Men were also more likely to be single – 62 per cent, compared to 43.6 per cent for women, but less likely to be widowed – 12.5 per cent, compared to 36.6 per cent of women.