67,891 households have been using peat, including turf, as the main source for heating their homes, according to the latest data released from Census 2022.
That is down from just over 90,000 households who said that they used turf as a heating source in Census 2016.
28,351 householders aged 65 and over were using turf in Census 2022; of those, just over 9,800 were living alone.
The figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that 6,646 householders aged under 40 were using turf.
12,184 households in Galway city and county were mainly reliant on turf as a heating source, compared to just 23 in Co. Louth.
The following table provides a county-by-county breakdown of the households that said they were using peat as central heating in Census 2022:
County Households using peat, including turf, as central heating Carlow 121 Cavan 657 Clare 2,228 Cork 566 Donegal 4,382 Dublin 217 Galway 12,184 Kerry 4,450 Kildare 3,731 Kilkenny 257 Laois 3,592 Leitrim 865 Limerick 1,106 Longford 2,316 Louth 23 Mayo 7,190 Meath 1,133 Monaghan 76 Offaly 7,836 Roscommon 5,304 Sligo 2,050 Tipperary 2,573 Waterford 62 Westmeath 4,578 Wexford 126 Wicklow 268
Last year, the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications announced that the sale of turf, smoky coal and wet wood would be restricted from October 31, 2022.
People with turbary rights and all other customary practices in respect of turf are unaffected by the regulations.
They continue to be able to cut turf for their own use and will retain the ability to gift or sell turf.
However, no sale of turf can take place by way of the internet or other media or from retail premises.
Census 2022
Over 714,000 households were using oil as their main heating source, according to Census 2022. This is up from 686,000 in Census 2016.
There was also an increase in households using natural gas for central heating from 569,000 in 2016 to just over 601,000 in the latest census.
216,000 households were using electricity in Census 2022, compared to 146,000 in 2016.
The data shows that dwellings built since 2016 were much more likely to rely on electricity for central heating.
Nearly half of the occupied housing stock built between 2016 and Census 2022 used electricity as the main type of central heating, compared with just 10% of older dwellings built from before 1919 up to 2015.
Oil was much less common in newer properties, at 9% compared with 41% of older dwellings.
In total, around one in three homes used natural gas to fuel their central heating.
63,000 households were mainly reliant on coal, compared to 86,600 in Census 2016.
Just over 21,000 households reported having no central heating in Census 2022.
Renewable energy
Census 2022 revealed that just under one in four households used renewable energy sources.
Wood was by far the most common renewable energy source, used by 246,255 households.
There were 96,343 households using solar panels for water heating while 35,603 households used them for electricity.
Over 71,000 households used heat pumps with 57,00 using air source heat pumps and 14,000 using ground source heat pumps.
In newer dwellings, solar panels and heat pumps were much more commonly used than wood.
The use of solar panels was reported by 6% of all households, ranging from 3% in Dublin City to 11% in Co. Meath.
Out of the 93,128 dwellings built between 2016 and 2022, over 30% used solar panels.