Apartment Living Statistics Ireland 2026: Residents, Locations, Tenure and Space

Sources reviewed 25 August 2026 | Approximately 12-minute read

Apartment living is a significant part of Ireland’s housing picture, especially in cities and the private rental market. Census 2022 recorded more than half a million people living in occupied flats and apartments, while the latest construction data shows that apartments made up about one-third of new dwelling completions in 2025.

This is a 2026 statistical roundup, but the figures do not all measure 2026. The latest national evidence on residents, locations, tenure and bedrooms comes from Census 2022. Resident attitudes come from a Housing Agency survey conducted in 2019, while the newest construction figures cover 2025 and the second quarter of 2026. Every statistic below states its own period and links to the relevant primary source.

Apartment living statistics Ireland 2026: key figures at a glance

• Ireland had 239,299 occupied flat or apartment households in Census 2022, comprising 190,197 homes in purpose-built blocks and 49,102 flats or apartments in converted buildings, based on the CSO accommodation and tenure dataset.
• 509,292 people lived in occupied flats and apartments in Census 2022, equal to 10.1% of people living in private households, according to the CSO household population data.
• The average occupied flat or apartment household contained 2.13 residents in Census 2022, calculated from the CSO household and resident totals.
• 68.4% of occupied flats and apartments were in Cities, while only 4.5% were in the three rural area categories in the CSO urban and rural classification.
• 137,248 flat or apartment households rented from a private landlord, representing 57.4% of the occupied flat and apartment total in Census 2022.
• 40,533 flat or apartment households were owner-occupied, equivalent to 16.9% of the total in the CSO tenure data.
• Social renting accounted for 38,212 flat or apartment households, or 16.0%, when local authority and voluntary or co-operative housing were combined in the Census categories.
• Among purpose-built apartment households that stated a bedroom count, 84.7% had one or two bedrooms, according to the CSO bedroom dataset.
• In the Housing Agency’s historical 2019 survey, 81% of purpose-built apartment residents were satisfied or very satisfied with their apartment, although internal storage and outdoor space were common concerns in the Apartment Living in Ireland report.
• Ireland recorded 12,039 apartment completions in 2025, equal to 33.2% of all completions, while 2,658 apartments were completed in Q2 2026 in the latest CSO New Dwelling Completions release.

Apartment living statistics infographic

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What counts as a flat or apartment in these statistics?

The Census separates apartment-style accommodation into distinct categories. A self-contained flat or apartment in a purpose-built block is recorded separately from a flat or apartment that forms part of a converted house or commercial building. Bed-sits, which may include shared facilities, form another category.

For consistency, the main totals in this article combine purpose-built and converted flats or apartments, but exclude bed-sits. This produces a total of 239,299 occupied flat or apartment households and 509,292 residents. Wherever the two apartment categories behave differently, they are shown separately.

The definition also explains why these numbers should not be mixed with construction or property-market statistics. Census data describes occupied homes and the people living in them on Census night. New dwelling completions measure a flow of newly completed homes, while property transactions measure purchases. They answer different questions.

How many people live in apartments in Ireland?

The Census 2022 accommodation dataset recorded 411,550 people living in 190,197 occupied flats or apartments in purpose-built blocks. A further 97,742 people lived in 49,102 flats or apartments in converted houses or commercial buildings.

Combined, that gives 509,292 residents in 239,299 occupied flat or apartment households. These residents represented 10.1% of the 5,036,617 people counted in private households. The share does not use Ireland’s total population as its denominator because communal establishments are outside the household accommodation table.

The combined average was 2.13 residents per occupied flat or apartment household. This is a household-size measure rather than a crowding measure. It does not reveal how much floor area each person had, whether rooms met a particular design standard, or how residents used the available space.

Purpose-built apartment households also became more numerous between the last two censuses. Their number increased from 172,096 in 2016 to 190,197 in 2022, a rise of 10.5%. This measures occupied households, not the number of apartments constructed during the period.

Where is apartment living concentrated?

Apartment living is strongly urban. The CSO’s Urban and Rural Life in Ireland 2025 release shows that 68.4% of occupied flats and apartments were in its Cities category in Census 2022. Only 4.5% were in the three rural categories combined.

Cities contained 163,608 occupied flats and apartments. This total comprised 133,325 homes in purpose-built blocks and 30,283 flats or apartments in converted buildings. Purpose-built apartments alone represented 21.2% of all occupied private households in Cities, while converted flats and apartments accounted for another 4.8%.

Satellite urban towns contained 28,258 occupied flats and apartments, including 24,297 purpose-built units and 3,961 converted units. Independent urban towns contained 36,776, made up of 27,110 purpose-built apartments and 9,666 converted flats or apartments.

These categories are analytical classifications used by the CSO. “Cities” does not simply mean every settlement with city status, and the rural total combines areas with high urban influence, moderate urban influence and highly rural or remote areas. The definitions matter when comparing locations.

Are most apartments rented or owner-occupied?

Private renting was the largest tenure category for flats and apartments in Census 2022. Across purpose-built and converted accommodation, 137,248 households rented from a private landlord. That was 57.4% of the combined apartment household total.

Owner occupation accounted for 40,533 flat or apartment households, or 16.9%. This included households that owned with a mortgage or loan and those that owned outright. Social renting accounted for 38,212 households, or 16.0%, when local authority and voluntary or co-operative housing were combined.

Tenure differed between apartment types. In purpose-built blocks, 103,922 households rented from a private landlord, representing 54.6% of the category. Converted flats and apartments were even more concentrated in private renting, with 33,326 households, or 67.9%, reporting a private landlord.

The resident count tells a similar story. In purpose-built blocks, 242,520 people lived in privately rented apartments. They represented 58.9% of all residents in that accommodation category.

These figures describe the tenure selected by households on Census night. They do not measure current rental availability, asking rents, registered tenancies or the ownership structure of every apartment development.

How many bedrooms do Irish apartments have?

The Census 2022 bedroom dataset provides a national view of apartment bedroom counts, but a substantial number of households did not state their number of bedrooms. Percentages in this section therefore use households that supplied a bedroom count as the denominator.

Among purpose-built apartment households with a stated bedroom count, 99,832 had two bedrooms. That represented 60.0% of the stated total. Another 40,973 had one bedroom, meaning 140,805 households, or 84.7%, had either one or two bedrooms.

Purpose-built apartments with three or more bedrooms were less common. There were 25,440 such households, representing 15.3% of those that stated a bedroom count.

Converted flats and apartments had a different profile. Among those stating bedrooms, 21,344 households had one bedroom, equal to 56.0%. A further 11,829 had two bedrooms, representing 31.0%.

Bedroom counts are a useful indicator of the range of homes, but they are not a direct measure of usable space. The Census does not use these figures to report average apartment floor area, storage capacity or room layout. Those distinctions are important when discussing how well an apartment works for a particular household.

What do residents say about apartment living?

The most detailed national survey focused specifically on apartment residents is the Housing Agency’s Apartment Living in Ireland 2019 report. It surveyed a nationally representative sample of 511 people living in purpose-built apartments and included four focus groups. These results are historical and should not be described as a 2026 resident survey.

Overall, 81% of respondents were satisfied or very satisfied with their apartment. Satisfaction varied by tenure: 93% of apartment owners were satisfied or very satisfied, compared with 84% of private renters and 67% of social renters. The report advises caution with some subgroup findings because sample sizes were small.

Space was one of the clearest concerns. Inadequate internal space or storage was identified by 32% of respondents, while 31% raised the absence of usable, adequate outdoor space. These were resident perceptions rather than measured floor-area or building-inspection results.

Noise from neighbours was raised by 21% of respondents. The same proportion reported damp or leaks in walls or the roof. These figures should not be interpreted as defect rates for Ireland’s apartment stock because they came from survey responses and applied only to the study population.

The findings show why apartment quality cannot be reduced to the number of bedrooms alone. Storage, access to outdoor space, noise control and maintenance can influence how usable a home feels, even where the basic room count appears suitable.

Apartment construction through Q2 2026

The latest CSO New Dwelling Completions release records 12,039 apartment completions in 2025. Apartments represented 33.2% of the 36,215 dwellings completed during the year. These revised figures replace the earlier totals of 12,047 apartments and 36,284 overall completions published in April 2026.

In Q2 2026, 2,658 apartments were completed. This was 12.2% fewer than the 3,027 completed in Q2 2025, and apartments accounted for 30% of all 8,823 completions during the quarter.

Apartment construction remained highly concentrated in Dublin. The region recorded 2,006 apartment completions in Q2 2026, equal to 75.5% of the national apartment total for the quarter.

The completions series is based on new domestic electricity connections, with adjustments made by the CSO. An apartment is a dwelling in a multi-unit development that ESB identifies as an apartment. These figures measure completed units, not occupied households, sales or planning permissions.

How apartment living in Ireland compares with the EU

Eurostat’s EU-SILC dwelling-type table estimates that 9.7% of Ireland’s population lived in a flat in 2024, compared with 47.9% across the EU-27. Ireland’s flat share was therefore 38.2 percentage points below the EU average on this measure. Eurostat’s companion Housing in Europe 2025 publication rounds the figures and reports that 90% of Ireland’s population lived in a house, the highest share in the EU.

The Eurostat percentage should not be treated as a direct update to the Census 2022 figure in this article. Eurostat uses a 2024 EU-SILC estimate and its own dwelling-type classification, while the CSO figure is a full Census count that combines purpose-built and converted flats or apartments and excludes bed-sits. The comparison is useful for broad EU context, but the two series are not interchangeable.

For related household context, M&I Interiors’ Furniture Statistics Ireland 2026 roundup covers spending, retail sales, prices, furniture reuse and the affordability of replacing worn-out furniture.

Methodology and sources

This roundup was compiled from primary sources reviewed on 25 August 2026. The main resident, household, tenure and bedroom figures come from the Central Statistics Office’s Census of Population 2022 Profile 2 datasets. The location analysis comes from the CSO’s Urban and Rural Life in Ireland 2025 publication, released on 21 April 2026 using Census 2022 data.

Resident attitudes come from the Housing Agency’s 2019 Apartment Living in Ireland study. It covered 511 residents of purpose-built apartments and four focus groups. Its percentages are presented as historical survey findings, not current administrative counts.

Construction figures come from the CSO New Dwelling Completions Q2 2026 release, published on 30 July 2026. The latest release contains revisions to earlier annual totals, so this article uses 12,039 apartment completions and 36,215 total completions for 2025.

The EU comparison uses Eurostat’s ilc_lvho01 EU-SILC dwelling-type table for 2024, comparing the “Flat” category for Ireland with the EU-27 aggregate. It is presented separately from the Census figures because the data year, collection method and dwelling definitions differ.

Derived percentages were calculated from the published counts and rounded to one decimal place unless the source supplied a headline percentage. Bed-sits were excluded from the main flat and apartment totals. No Northern Ireland figures were added to the Republic of Ireland totals.

How M&I Interiors Help

The statistics do not prescribe how an apartment should be furnished, but they do show why flexibility matters. Most purpose-built apartments with a stated bedroom count had one or two bedrooms, and the 2019 resident survey identified storage and usable space as recurring concerns. Furniture dimensions, circulation space and storage therefore deserve attention before a room is planned.

For a compact living area, start with the room measurements and the paths people use through it. M&I Interiors’ guide to arranging furniture in a small living room explains how scale, placement and visual balance can help a limited footprint work more comfortably.

When choosing pieces, compare the full product dimensions with doorways, lifts, stairwells and the intended layout. The M&I Interiors living room furniture collection provides dimensions for sofas, tables, storage pieces and coordinated sets that can be checked against the available space.