Nearly one-sixth of all private dwellings in the country are lying empty, according to census figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) today.
The results of the census, which was carried out in April, 2006, also reveal that one in six of the 1,469,521 occupied private homes in the State were built since the turn of the century.
Some 249,000 dwellings were built between 2001 and 2006, including over a quarter of all homes in Meath and Fingal.
Three out of four private residences in Stamullen, Co Meath, and 62 per cent of homes in Lusk, Co Dublin, were built in this period.
Slightly over 54,000 homes were built in Dublin over the period. A total of 154,774 homes were built around Ireland in the previous five years.
The census found there are 1,769,613 homes in the State, and that of those, 174,935 were vacant houses, 41,598 were vacant flats or apartments and 49,789 were holiday homes. The number of vacant homes amounts to 15 per cent of the total.
Co Leitrim had the highest percentage of vacant dwellings (29.3 per cent), while 11.7 per cent of dwellings in Dublin were vacant in April 2006.
Apartments, flats and bed-sits accounted for over 10 per cent of all occupied private dwellings in the State in April 2006 compared with 8.6 per cent four years earlier.
Almost half of the 4,123,318 people who registered in the census live in detached homes. Nearly 1,800,000 live in semi-detached or terraced homes, while around 300,000 live in apartments, flats or bed-sits. Some 16,565 people said their main home was a caravan.
Just over 912,000 dwellings are in urban areas, while the remaining 555,000 are classified as being in rural settings. There are 396,000 one-off houses in Ireland, of which a quarter have been built since 1996.
According to the figures, 77 per cent of people own their own homes. Some 569,966 homes are owner-occupied and under mortgage, while 498,432 of householders own their homes outright.
The average weekly rent paid for each home in the private sector is €191.09, while in local authority housing the average rent is €58.84.
Nearly 47,000 homes are owned by non-Irish nationals, either with or without mortgage. Of those, 30,000 are owned by UK citizens, and 7,000 are owned by people from the 25 European Union states.
Minister for Integration Conor Lenihan said the lower owner-occupancy for Polish-born people "would seem to be a reflection of the recency of their arrival".
"It is noteworthy also that the higher rates of owner-occupancy for African and Asian-headed households probably reflects a longer period of engagement with the various financial and support systems in the country," he said.
"Housing for non-Irish is, in any event, an evolving situation and ownership patterns can be expected to change over time as the numbers qualifying for local authority housing rises and mortgage facilities become more available in the growing market represented by immigrants."
