More than 42,000 people, including almost 16,500 children, are waiting to be housed by Dublin City Council, the highest number ever seeking social housing in the city.

The city’s social-housing waiting list is made up of 21,592 applicants, 1,368 of whom have been on the waiting list for more than 10 years. Just two months ago the council’s housing list exceeded 20,000 applicants for the first time, with a total of 21,015. Since then, 577 more people have made applications, the highest number ever to seek council flats and houses in the city.

In the first report of its kind, the council has collated the number of applicants for social housing; the number of children each applicant has; the length of time on the waiting list; the size of accommodation needed; and the areas of greatest housing need in the city.

The new figures show, for the first time, the total number of people who need homes. The applications have been made on behalf of 42,106 people, 25,617 of whom are adults and 16,489 of whom are children.

About a quarter of applicants are single, but almost a third are lone parents with between one and eight dependent children. Couples are far less likely to need council housing, with 4,025 couples having made applications for homes to the council, 3,142 of them with children.

Single-parent households

Of the 21,592 applicants, almost half, 10,310, have been waiting for between one and five years, while more than a third, 7,394, have been on the list for between five and 10 years. Some 2,520 are new to the list, having made their application for social housing within the past year, but 1,368 have been waiting to be housed in Dublin city for more than 10 years.

The biggest demand in the city is for one-bedroom flats. Some 12,071 people have applied for a one-bedroom home, most of them single (11,075 applicants), with the remainder mainly older couples. A third of applicants want a two-bedroom home, and 2,103 have applied for three bedrooms. A far smaller number want more than this: 194 applications are for a four-bedroom house and 33 are for five bedrooms.

The greatest demand for housing is in the northeast of the city, in Artane, Coolock , Killester, Raheny, Darndale, Beaumont, Marino, Clontarf, Kilbarrack and the surrounding areas, where 5,733 applicants are seeking housing.