FLU VACCINATION campaigns, improvements in home heating and energy efficiency have contributed to significant decreases in the number of deaths linked to cold weather, according to the Institute of Public Health.
However, the group has warned that rising unemployment could lead to a sharp increase in the number of people who cannot afford to heat their homes this winter.
Launching its annual update on fuel poverty, the institute's senior policy officer Dr Helen McAvoy welcomed the large decrease in the number of people dying in winter in the period 1982-2005.
It says there were 1,950 excess winter deaths recorded on the island of Ireland in 2005, compared to about 2,800 during the 1990s.
"We welcome the finding that the number of deaths on the island associated with colder months has declined," Dr McEvoy said.
"It is certainly heartening to see that in Northern Ireland, the impact of a one degree of temperature shortfall on deaths in the 1980s was three times that in the period 2000-2004."
There has been good news for consumers recently with gas and electricity prices due to be pegged at current levels in the new year.
However the institute has raised concerns that increases in fuel poverty - or the proportion of people who cannot afford to heat their homes - will remain a problem due to the economic downturn.
Fuel poverty is defined as when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on energy in order to maintain an acceptable level of heat throughout their home.
The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) had forecast a rise in fuel poverty in the Republic from 16 per cent in 2005 to 19 per cent in 2008. This pre-dated the significant fall in energy prices in recent months.
Northern Ireland's House Conditions Survey 2006 estimated that levels of fuel poverty rose from approximately 25 per cent in 2004 to 34 per cent in 2006.