How do Irish household sizes compare with EU?

Ireland also has more children in households than most EU countries, according to an EU survey.

Ireland has among the highest number of people living together in the EU, but the number of adult-only homes has far outpaced ones with children.

While the number of homes with children present in Ireland grew by about 7%, the number of homes without children grew by more than 20% in the past 12 years.

That is according to EU data that show there were 197m households in the bloc last year, with on average 2.2 members per household.

Data from the European Commission’s data analysis wing Eurostat show the number of people living alone in the last decade has grown significantly.

Single-person households without children in the EU increased by 28.5% between 2009 and 2021, Eurostat said.

Of homes with children in the EU, just under half have one, 39% have two, and 12% have three. Some 13% of homes with children present are single-parent, Eurostat added.

Comparing Ireland with its fellow EU members, the number of households with children fell in 16 countries, with the largest decrease found in Lithuania at almost 22%. Luxembourg and Malta both increased homes with children by more than 10%.

In relation to the number of households without children between 2009 and 2021, the highest increase was recorded in Malta at almost 66%, followed by Luxembourg at about 42%, and Cyprus at more than 39%. Only Slovakia, Bulgaria, and Greece had fewer households without children in 2021 than in 2009, Eurostat said.

When it comes to children in households, Ireland ranks among the highest in the EU, the data show.

At EU level, about one quarter of households included children, Eurostat said. 

"At the top of the scale, children lived in more than 30% of households in Ireland, Slovakia, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania. By contrast, children were found in less than 20 % of households in Germany and Finland," it added.

Ireland also has more children in households than most EU countries.

Among households with children in the EU, those with just one child are the most common, Eurostat said. 

"In 2021, in the EU, almost half of households with children had just one child. Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania and Lithuania had the highest shares of households with one child, more than 55%. 

"By contrast, the lowest shares were in Ireland and Sweden, where households with one child comprised less than 40% of households with children."

Ireland has the highest number of households with three children or more, the data show.

"In the EU, 12% of the households with children in 2021 consisted of households with three or more children. Ireland, Finland, Croatia, Belgium, France, Sweden, Greece and the Netherlands recorded the highest shares of households with three children or more, all above 15%," Eurostat said.

Ireland is the only country in the bloc at above 20% when it comes to households with three children or more, the data show.

By contrast, Malta, Lithuania, Czechia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Bulgaria are at the other end of the scale, with fewer than one in 10 households with three children or more.

Just under two-thirds of households with children in the EU level are comprised of couples. In the majority of EU countries, this is the most common type of household with children, Eurostat said.