THE POPULATION census that was launched in October last year has now been completed and the Cyprus Statistical Service (CySTAT) has published the preliminary results of its analysis relating to population and housing.
Population
The Island’s population has increased by 21.7% from 689,565 since the previous census in 2001 to reach 838,897. Paphos had the highest growth rate at 33.0%, followed by Larnaca at 24.4%, Famagusta at 23.1%, Limassol at 19.6% and finally Nicosia at 19.0%.
Foreigners now account for more than 1 in 5 of the population at 21.4% having risen from less that 1 in 10 (9.4%) a decade ago. The majority of those are from Greece, followed by the United Kingdom, Romania and Bulgaria.
Housing
The number of housing units has increased by 47.2% over the past 10 years, rising from 293,985 in 2001 to 432,736 at the time of the latest census. Compared with 2001 the largest increase in the number of housing units is in Paphos, where they have increased by 88.0%, followed by Famagusta, where they are up by 79.5%.
It is worth noting that the number of vacant/secondary housing units has increased by 90.1% since the previous census in 2001. In Paphos and Famagusta, the areas once popular with overseas (most notably British) buyers, the number of housing units has more than doubled to reach 156.2% and 149.8% respectively.
It is also worth noting that number of vacant/secondary housing units in Famagusta and Paphos exceeds the number of occupied units in both districts.
These numbers do not include the thousands of unsold and partly-built properties littering the areas once popular with overseas property investors.
Further reading
Cyprus Statistical Service Preliminary Results of the Census of Population, 2011
@Alex – If you read the Preliminary Results of the Census of Population, 2011 you will see that Russians account for 4.8% of the population, but there may well be more who have holiday homes here.
The vast majority of these will have arrived since the present government took office.
@Sheik yr Mami – Have you ever seen the UK census forms? They also require details of ethnicity – here are the questions from the most recent census in England:
What is your ethnic group?
A. White
– English / Welsh / Scottish / Northern Irish / British
– Irish
– Gypsy or Irish Traveller
– Any other White background
B. Mixed / multiple ethnic groups
– White and Black Caribbean
– White and Black African
– White and Asian
– Any other Mixed / multiple ethnic background
C. Asian / Asian British
– Indian
– Pakistani
– Bangladeshi
– Chinese
– Any other Asian background
D. Black / African / Caribbean / Black British
– African
– Caribbean
– Any other Black / African / Caribbean background
E. Other ethnic group
– Arab
– Any other ethnic group
I see confirmation of my previous suspicion: the much advertised “Russian invasion” proved to be a hoax. There are at least 4 foreign nations with much greater presence.
Judging by the posts of those who were not counted, the percentage of foreigners is actually higher than officially recognized, since authorities may have “overlooked” foreigners-dominated areas.
As one of the previous post says, nobody came to the complex that I live in in Kapparis, even though there are about 300+ permanent residents.
This just one complex of many that was not even visited
I see that the eagle-eyed readers managed to spot my deliberate mistake in the population increase figure, which I have now corrected.
Thank you
It would be interesting to know how many of these 1 in 5 non Cypriot immigrants have managed to land jobs in the Public services and SGO’s.
I think I could hazard a guess!
I’m surprised at Paphos 88% growth in total housing units over 2001. I would have guessed a whole lot more.
BTW, during this census period, no-one pitched at our pad to conduct census, in fact no-one in our road was asked! perhaps they got all from our Muchtar’s books.
This is really a xenophobic country when we measure local or not on a daily basis. I also guess there is a district lack of declaration of foreign “domestic help”‘ that are present in many houses, certainly in Limassol.
Since 2001 the number of housing units in the Paphos area has increased by 88%. How many buyers of these new housing units have been issued with Title Deeds I wonder?