Press Statement

Preasráiteas

02 September 2020

Go to release: Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Enforced Deprivation 2019

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (02 September 2020) issued enforced deprivation results from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2019 and comparable data for previous years.

Commenting on the report, Eva O’Regan, 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, rate of enforced deprivation and the consistent poverty rate.  Today we are publishing the 2019 results for enforced deprivation.

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 in 2019 was 17.8%, up from 15.1% in 2018.

The key findings show that in 2019 most socio-demographic groups experienced an increase in enforced deprivation rates year-on-year. The largest increase was observed in those living in rented accommodation, where 34.4% were living in enforced deprivation in 2019, compared to 27.4% in 2018.  There was little change in the year-on-year deprivation rate of those living in owner-occupied accommodation (10.3% in 2019 and 10.0% in 2018).

Those living in households with one adult and one or more children aged under 18 had the highest enforced deprivation rate in 2019 at 45.4%.  Unemployed individuals (36.0%) and those individuals who were not at work due to permanent illness or disability (43.3%) also had high enforced deprivation rates in 2019.

The lowest enforced deprivation rates in 2019 were observed amongst the retired (9.4%), households with three or more persons at work (7.4%), and those with a third level degree or higher (5.3%).

The most common types of deprivation experienced by Irish households in 2019 were; an inability to afford to replace worn out furniture (18.1%), to afford to meet family or friends for a drink or a meal once a month (13.6%) or to afford a morning, afternoon or evening out in the last fortnight (11.7%).

One in three individuals (29.6%) experienced one or more of the 11 types of deprivation items in 2019, similar to the 2018 figure of 29.1%, and a decrease on a high of 44.9% in 2013.

The proportion of the population experiencing three or more types of deprivation items was 12.0% in 2019, an increase from 9.9% in 2018. This compares with a high of 20.9% in 2013’.

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