Ireland's Central Statistics Office reports data centres at 7,663 GWh in 2025 — 23% of all metered electricity, up from 1,240 GWh and 5% a decade earlier. A 518% increase while every other category grew 2%.
Data centres now consume more than all urban dwellings (18%) and far more than rural ones (10%). A single industrial category out-draws the entire housing stock of a developed economy. EirGrid and the CRU have restricted new Dublin-region connections in response, which is why Dublin delivered just 11.4 MW in the first half of 2026 while Paris delivered 72.5 MW.
This is the best-evidenced figure in the atlas, and the only reason is that Ireland decided to count. No other country publishes an equivalent official series. If you want to know why so much of this atlas is derived rather than reported, the answer is that most statistical offices have not started.