Census 2022 found 163,433 vacant homes and 66,956 holiday homes in Ireland. These maps and charts show which counties have the most, why homes stand empty and how the picture has changed since 2016.
One home in every seven in Donegal is a holiday home. Census 2022 counted 12,485 holiday homes there, more than any other county and nearly one in five of every holiday home in the State.
Across Ireland the census found 2,112,121 homes. Of those, 163,433 were vacant and another 66,956 were holiday homes with nobody in them on census night. Together that is just under 11% of all homes.
What counts as vacant
The census sorts every home into one of four groups. A home is occupied if people lived there on census night.
It is temporarily absent if the people who live there were away that night. A holiday home is one used only for holidays.
A vacant home is one nobody lived in on census night that was not a holiday home. The CSO says the census cannot tell how long a home has been empty or will stay empty. A home between tenants or waiting for a sale still counts.
Holiday homes cluster on the coast
Holiday homes are packed into the Atlantic and south-east coasts. In Donegal 14.5% of all homes are holiday homes, and in Kerry 11.5%. In Dublin, Kildare and Meath the figure is under half of one per cent.
| County | Holiday homes | Share of all homes |
|---|---|---|
| Donegal | 12,485 | 14.5% |
| Kerry | 8,896 | 11.5% |
| Cork | 7,444 | 3.1% |
| Mayo | 5,987 | 8.8% |
| Wexford | 5,958 | 8.3% |
| Galway | 5,000 | 4.2% |
| Clare | 4,921 | 8.5% |
| Waterford | 2,147 | 3.9% |
The number of holiday homes rose by 4,808 between 2016 and 2022, an increase of 8%. Mayo added 1,132 and Donegal added 1,197. Wexford and Wicklow were the only coastal counties to see a fall. Wexford went from 6,629 to 5,958.
Where homes stand empty
The vacancy rate is the share of all homes that are vacant, not counting holiday homes. For the State it was 7.7% in 2022. It is highest in the north-west and midlands and lowest around Dublin.
Leitrim has the highest rate, with 15.2% of homes vacant. Roscommon (13.3%) and Mayo (13.1%) come next. Kildare has the lowest rate, at 5.1%, followed by Dublin, Meath and Wicklow at 5.6%.
Big numbers and high rates are not the same thing. Dublin has the most vacant homes because it has by far the most homes. Leitrim has just 2,807 vacant homes, but they are a much bigger slice of a small stock.
Fewer vacant homes than in 2016
Vacancy has fallen at each of the last two censuses. The number of vacant homes dropped from 230,056 in 2011 to 183,312 in 2016, and to 163,433 in 2022. Holiday homes moved the other way, rising at each census.
The fall was sharpest in Waterford, where vacant homes dropped by 25%. Only two counties had more vacant homes in 2022 than in 2016: Kilkenny, up 4.8%, and Dublin, up 0.6%.
Fall in vacant homes in Waterford between 2016 and 2022, the biggest of any county
Source: cso.ieWhy homes were empty
Census 2022 asked enumerators to record the reason a home was vacant, where they could find it out. The most common reason was that the home was a rental property between tenants.
In 27,213 homes, the person who lived there had died. That reason was most common in Roscommon and Mayo, at 25% of vacant homes in each. Another 10,902 homes were empty because the owner was in a nursing home or hospital.
Reasons vary from place to place. In Galway City, 35% of vacant homes were rental properties, the highest share anywhere.
Renovation was most often the reason in Dublin City (18%), Wicklow (17%) and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown (17%). Across the State, 17,472 vacant homes were for sale.
Long-term vacancy is highest in Leitrim, Mayo and Roscommon, where 6% of homes were vacant at both censuses. In Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Wicklow the figure was 1%.
Houses and flats
Most vacant homes are houses. Census 2022 counted 130,469 vacant houses, down 7% on 2016, and 32,964 vacant flats and apartments, down 24%.
- Flats in converted buildings and bed-sits: vacancy rate fell from 28% to 18%.
- Purpose-built apartments: from 13% to 9%.
- Terraced houses: from 10% to 7%.
- Semi-detached houses: 5% in both 2016 and 2022.
A further 34,794 homes were recorded as temporarily absent, meaning the people who live there were away on census night. These are not counted as vacant. That number fell from 50,732 in 2016.
What this means for you
- If you own a home that stays empty, Revenue charges Vacant Homes Tax on homes in use as a dwelling for less than 30 days in a 12-month period, on top of Local Property Tax.
- Your local council can tell you about any local schemes to bring empty homes back into use.
- If you are looking for a home in a county with high vacancy, the map shows where empty houses are most common.
- Your own area's figures, down to Electoral Division, are free on data.cso.ie.
About these figures
- All figures are from Census 2022, the most recent census.
- Holiday homes counted here are those empty on census night.
- Dublin combines Dublin City, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. Galway combines city and county.
- County shares are Irish Wire calculations from CSO counts.
The next census will be held, the CSO says, giving the first new county count of vacant and holiday homes since 2022.
