The SILC is a survey that the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has undertaken every year since 2004 and it covers a broad range of issues, particularly on income and living conditions. It’s part of an EU-wide programme.
The SILC survey is a voluntary survey (for selected households) carried out every year under Section 24 of the Statistics Act, 1993 and EU Council Regulation No 1177/2003. On 01/01/2021 Council Regulation No 1177/2003 was repealed by Regulation (EU) 2019/1700. It is the official source of data on household and individual income in Ireland. It gives us a number of key national poverty indicators, including the ‘at risk of poverty’ rate, the ‘consistent poverty rate’ and ‘rates of enforced deprivation’. See Survey on Income and Living Conditions Fact Sheet.
The ‘equivalised’ disposable income is the total disposable income of each household divided by the equivalised household size using the National equivalence scale. It helps us to calculate the at risk of poverty rate. See video below and At Risk of Poverty Indicators Explained (PDF 717KB) .
The at risk of poverty rate is the share of persons with an equivalised income below a given percentage (usually 60%) of the national median income. The rate is calculated by ranking persons by equivalised income from smallest to largest and then extracting the median (middle) value. Anyone with an equivalised income of less than 60% of the national median is considered to be at risk of poverty. See At Risk of Poverty Indicators Explained (PDF 717KB) .
This measures the households that are considered to be marginalised or deprived because they cannot afford goods and services which are considered to be the norm for other people in society. The identification of these households is based on a set of 11 basic deprivation indicators:
Enforced deprivation is defined as not being able to afford to buy two or more of these 11 basic deprivation indicators.
The consistent poverty measure counts those who are at risk of poverty and who are experiencing enforced deprivation (two or more types of deprivation from the above list).
An individual is defined as being in ‘consistent poverty’ if they are:
SILC is really important because it tells us how many people and households are at risk of poverty. This helps local, national and European policy makers when making decisions on social
inclusion, education, health, employment and other areas of concern.
In particular the survey helps to monitor progress in the fight against poverty. Specialist research bodies, such as the Economic and Social Research Institute and Social Justice Ireland can see what’s happening and make proposals for policy improvements.
Eurostat, the statistical arm of the European Commission, will also use the results to compare living conditions throughout the European Union.
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