Newly-published figures show average water consumption per day dropped in 2016, compared with a year earlier.

The data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), from meter readings provided by Irish Water, show the annual average consumption in 2016 was 351 litres daily.

This is an 8.4% decrease compared with the 2015 average of 383 litres.

Source: CSO

In the Dublin postal district, Dublin 24 had the highest average daily consumption at 569 litres per meter per day.

While Dublin 20 had the lowest annual average daily consumption at 274 litres.

Cavan had the lowest average consumption in 2016 at 298 litres - compared with Offaly, which had the highest annual average of 398 litres.

While on a monthly basis, the average consumption varied from 342 litres per meter per day in November to 358 litres in May.

In contrast to average consumption, the median consumption per meter per day in 2016 of 249 litres was 1.2% higher than the 2015 figure of 246 litres.

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The monthly medians varied from 246 litres in July and November - to 258 litres in May.

The CSO says median consumption reflects "typical levels of consumption more than average consumption", as the median is less affected by meters with very high levels of water use.

Around 75% of annual total water consumption by domestic metered customers was accounted for by 99.1% of customers, using a consumption threshold of 1,000 litres per meter per day.

Source: CSO

The CSO says it hopes to release the water statistics annually, however this is dependent on data from Irish Water.

A spokesperson says they hope to release data for 2017 in the next two months.

Recent research from Irish Water claimed the average person uses 129 litres of water a day.

However the study also indicated that 56% of those surveyed believed that the average person used less than 50 litres of water per day.