64% of people say housing 1 of top 3 issues Ireland faces

A new survey from the Central Statistics Office shows that climate change or other threats to the environment have fallen as a major concern for people here, while 64% identified housing as one of the three most important issues facing the country.

The CSO’s Trust Survey for 2025 shows that 25% of respondents said that climate change was a top issue for the country, down from 40% in 2023.

Housing, inflation and the cost of living, as well as the availability, quality or affordability of services such as education and healthcare were the top three issues facing people in Ireland in 2025.

The CSO said that 64% of respondents reported the availability, quality or affordability of housing as one of the three most important issues facing the country, down from 71% in 2023.

But this was the highest percentage for this issue of any country surveyed last year, followed by Luxembourg at 50% and Iceland at 36%. The OECD average was 20%.

84% of respondents aged 18 to 29 years considered housing to be a top three issue, compared with 63% for those aged 30 to 49 years and 59% for those aged 50 years and over.

Meanwhile, 64% of respondents here said that inflation or cost of living worries to be one of the top three issues facing the country in 2025.

A higher percentage – 67% – of respondents aged 30 to 49 years considered the cost of living to be a top three issue, compared with 59% of those aged 18 to 29 years.

The figures show that 25% of respondents identified climate change and other threats to the environment as one of the top three issues facing the country, behind Japan at 38% and Denmark at 34%.

Men (27%) in Ireland were slightly more likely than women (24%) to consider climate change to be a top three issue, while those aged 18 to 29 years were also slightly more inclined to consider it a top three issue compared with older cohorts.

The CSO research also reveals that the availability, quality or affordability of essential services such as healthcare and education was a top three issue for 45% of respondents in Ireland with only Iceland (52%) and Finland (49%) putting this topic higher.

The CSO noted a big difference on the importance of this issue for men and women, with 38% of men and 52% of women ranking it among their top three issues.

On immigration, 24% of respondents in Ireland reported it as one of the top three issues facing the country, similar to the OECD average of 25%.

16% of respondents in Ireland had considered it to be a top three issue in the previous survey in 2023.

Ireland was one of 38 countries that participated in the 2023 round of the OECD Trust Survey, which also included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.