The first results of Census 2011 were released in Ireland this week. It showed that about 100,000 additional people were living in Ireland than was expected. In fact the population grew by 341,421 between 2006 and 2011 (8.1%). This was most due to strong natural increase with a high rate of births (the highest in Europe) and a low death rate, with emigration not occurring to the same extent as people thought (in fact, 118K more people move to the country than left). Since 1991 the population has grown by more than a million people to 4.5m, a whopping 29.9% increase. The figure though that I had been waiting for somewhat nervously was the housing vacancy rate. Based on our research the media had reported back in January 2010 that the vacancy rate for the country was 300,000. A number that became synonymous with the property crash. We were roundly criticised by the construction and property sector for that assessment and have spend much of the last 18 months debating with them the level of vacant stock. The Census reported that there were 294,202 vacant units that were habitable. Thankfully for us, but not for the country, we were just about right. Phew! The map above is vacancy by ED, with blue areas having over 20% vacancy.My posts this week:
Review of White Death by Tobias Jones
Reading a scream
Old book, new format
Review From Aberystwyth With Love by Malcolm Pryce
2011 Census housing vacancy data
Geographic variation in housing vacancy 2011
June reviews
3 comments:
Because Michigan is losing people and because the Republicans are in the majority in the State and US House, they have now redrawn the map to favor Republicans wherever possible. This should not be permitted. Elected officials should not be in charge of redrawing maps that determine so much. It will be another ten years before this can be fixed.
Ireland is also about to have an electoral commission to reduce the number of members of parliament, probably between 7 and 13. It'll be guided by the Census results as to where they should be rejigged. Gerrymandering of the kind you detail has happened all over the world. The solution is a non-partisan commission to work out boundary changes with some degree of objectivity.
Must be strange to suddenly find a hundred thousand extra people.
It's encouraging that emigration was lower than expected.
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