A study of irradiation creep due to stress-induced preferred absorption of point defects in zirconium single crystals is presented. By using a previously obtained formula for the dislocation climb velocity we derive general expressions for the creep rate due to dislocation climb and the subsequent glide allowed by the climb, taking into account the anisotropy of the dislocation structure. These formulas are then applied to the case of a single crystal of zirconium. We find that the creep rate is very sensitive to the stress direction relative to the c-axis. If θ is the angle between the stress direction and the c-axis, then the creep rate is proportional to sin⁴θ. We_find also that if the deformation dislocations are not evenly distributed in the three <1120> directions, the creep rate may increase or decrease when the density of the deformation dislocation increases.