The number of children living in jobless households in Ireland has fallen sharply since 2012, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

New figures show the proportion of people aged 0-17 living in jobless households was 13.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2016.

This represents a significant decline on 20.1 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2012.

The figures, which correlate strongly with improving labour market conditions, also show the proportion of all people aged 0-59 has fallen to 12.3 per cent, down from 17.2 per cent back in 2012.

In the second quarter of 2016, the Mid-East region had the lowest proportion of persons aged 0-59 living in jobless households (10.2 per cent), while the Border region had the highest proportion (14.1 per cent).

The figures were produced as part of the CSO’s latest Quarterly National Household Survey.

They reveal there were 412,600 single person households in the State, equating to 23.9 per cent of the total, which was 1.7 million.

One and two person households accounted for more than half (52.5 per cent) of all the households in the State, while 3.8 per cent of households contained six or more people.

The number of households in which the only family unit was a couple without children was 370,800, while the number of households where the only family unit was a couple with children was 644,200.

The employment rate for all persons aged 15-64 was 64.7 per cent in the second quarter, up from 60 per cent in 2010.

The participation rates for all males and females aged 15 and over were 67.8 per cent and 53.6 per cent respectively. The participation rate of males in couples with children was 87.8 per cent while the corresponding participation rate for females was 64.4 per cent.

The State’s headline rate of unemployment in the second quarter was put at 8.6 per cent in the second quarter.

Within this, the figures show adult members (aged 15-74) of couples without children had a 5.2 per cent unemployment rate, while the adult members of couples with children had an unemployment rate of 6.3 per cent.

The unemployment rate of lone parents was 10.8 per cent, however.