Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems 2023

Key Findings

• The number of registered domestic waste water treatment systems in Ireland increased by 1.1% to 492,359 in 2023 (See Table 1).

• In 2023, Cork had the highest number of registered domestic waste water treatment systems at 56,281 (11%) (See Table 1).

• The seven counties of Cork, Galway, Kerry, Donegal, Mayo, Tipperary, and Wexford accounted for just over half of all registrations in 2023 (See Table 1).

• There was a 4% decrease in the number of new registrations in 2023 compared with 2022 (See Table 2).

• Household owners accounted for 97% of all registered waste water treatment systems in 2023 (See Table 3).

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (22 May 2024) released Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems 2023.

Linh Nolan, Statistician in the Environment Division of the CSO, noted that: "This release provides insight on the registration of domestic water treatment systems in Ireland, such as septic tanks, which collect, treat, and discharge waste water from households that are not connected to public sewer systems. We can see that the number of registered domestic waste water treatment systems rose by 1.1% in 2023 to 492,359 (See Figure 1 and Table 1). The number of registrations increased in every local authority in 2023, with Leitrim and Wexford recording the highest annual increase of approximately 2% each.

In 2023, with 56,281 registered domestic waste water treatment systems, Cork had the highest proportion of systems at 11% followed by Galway (9%) and Kerry (7%). Donegal, Mayo, and Tipperary had the next highest proportion of registrations at 6% each, followed by Wexford at 5%. These seven counties accounted for just over half of all individual waste water treatment systems (See Table 1 and Figure 2).

There were 5,457 new systems registered in 2023 which was a 4% decrease compared with 2022. Cork also accounted for the highest proportion of new registrations in 2023 at 12%, followed by Galway (9%), Wexford and Donegal (7% each) (See Table 2).

Household owners accounted for 97% of all registered waste water treatment systems in 2023. Public authorities and other non-domestic owners accounted for 1.5% each. In Longford, public authorities accounted for 4% of all owners in 2023, compared with Kildare where they accounted for 0.1% (See Table 3)."

Editor's Note

New registrations may include an element of late registrations.

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Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Chart context menuSource: CSO Ireland20192020202120222023Highcharts.comFigure 1: Registrations of Domestic Waste Water Treatment Systems 2019-2023

X-axis label	Total Registrations	New Registrations
2019	471588	4350
2020	475742	4157
2021	481220	5481
2022	486904	5675
2023	492359	5457

Created with Highcharts 9.3.3Chart context menuSource: CSO IrelandZoom in+Zoom out-0.0 - 3.03.0 - 6.06.0 - 9.09.0 - 12.0Highcharts.comFigure 2: Percentage of Total Registrations by County 2023

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