Press Statement

Preasráiteas

17 December 2018

Deprivation and Consistent Poverty Rates decreased in 2017

Go to release: Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2017

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (17 December 2018) issued results from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2017 and comparable data for previous years.

Commenting on the report Gerry Reilly, Senior Statistician, said:  “The SILC household survey is the official source of data on household and individual income and it provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as; the at risk of poverty rate, the consistent poverty rate and rates of enforced deprivation.

The key findings show that in 2017, the mean annual household disposable income was €48,476, representing a statistically significant increase of 4.7% on the 2016 value of €46,310.  

Equivalised income is a measure of household income that takes account of the differences in household size and composition.  From 2016 to 2017 there were no statistically significant changes in median equivalised income or in key income distribution indicator estimates.

The survey also provides insight into poverty in Ireland.  The at risk of poverty rate, which is the share of persons whose equivalised income was less than 60% of the national median equivalised income, was 15.7% compared with 16.2% in 2016.  This change is not statistically significant.

Enforced deprivation is defined as not being able to afford two or more deprivation indicators; such as keeping the home adequately warm or buying presents for family/friends at least once a year.  The percentage of people considered to be experiencing enforced deprivation was 18.8%, down from 21.0% in 2016; this is a statistically significant change. 

The most common types of deprivation experienced by Irish households were an inability to afford to replace worn out furniture (20.4%), to afford to have family or friends for a drink or a meal once a month (13.9%) and to afford a morning, afternoon or evening out in the last fortnight (13.2%).

Finally, the consistent poverty rate which includes those persons who are defined as being both at risk of poverty and who are also experiencing enforced deprivation, was 6.7%.  This is also a statistically significant change on the 2016 figure of 8.2%”. 

Ad hoc modules are carried out as part of SILC each year to complement the variables permanently collected in the survey.  The topic for the 2017 ad hoc module was 'Health and Children's Health' and, although the plan is to publish more detailed analysis of the module next year, some high-level results from the module are being published with today's core SILC results.

Approximately three quarters (75.6%) of those aged 16 years and over reported having visited their general practitioner (GP) at least once in the last 12 months, while 15.9% reported having visited their GP on six or more occasions.  Almost one third (32.5%) of households with children, that needed dental examinations and/or treatments reported that the associated costs were a financial burden, compared to just under a quarter (23.8%) of households without children.

Approximately two in five (38.1%) workers described their physical status at work as “mostly sitting”, of which 41.4% spent 3 hours or less per week engaged in physical activities when not working.

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