Distribution of Earnings by Nationality 2024

Statistician's Comment

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (03 September 2025) published Distribution of Earnings by Nationality 2024.

Commenting on the release, Darragh Turner, Statistician in the Labour Market and Earnings Analysis Division of the CSO, said: “This release is the second iteration in a series that explores the composition of Ireland’s labour market and earnings by nationality from the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources (EAADS) dataset. The primary data source is the Revenue Commissioner’s employee tax data. This is linked to the CSO Business Register and other data to provide economic and demographic breakdowns of employee earnings in Ireland. This dataset is used to analyse the change in composition of labour market employments and changes to the mean, median, and distribution of earnings by nationality over a five-year period. It also focuses on nationalities that made up the top 10 employments in Ireland in 2024 and the effect of age on earnings (See Editor’s Note below for more information).

Overall, we can see that in 2024, Irish nationals accounted for 72.5% of all employments in Ireland and non-Irish nationals made up 27.5%. The median weekly earnings for Irish nationals were €762.72 and €672.76 for non-Irish nationals. When it comes to weekly earnings figures, it is worth bearing in mind that Irish nationals have a much greater age spread across all sectors in the economy compared with non-Irish nationals with those in the 15-24 years age group typically working fewer hours and earning the lowest median weekly wage. For example, 26.4% of employments among Irish nationals were in the 15-24 years and 60 years and over age group. This compared with 13.0% for non-Irish nationals.

Excluding Irish nationals, people from Poland (3.2%), India (3.1%) and the UK (2.7%) had the highest employment rate. There were some notable concentrations of nationalities in certain economic sectors. Of all employments held by Indian nationals, three in ten (32.2%) were in the Human Health & Social Work sector, while for those from Ukraine, one in four (25.3%) employments were in the Accommodation & Food Services sector.

Age

Age and sector of economic activity played a determining factor in earnings. In 2024, the median age of Irish nationals was 41, while for non-Irish nationals the median age was 37. The age group with the highest median weekly earnings was 40-49 years at €892.30. Within that age group the highest earning nationalities were among those from India (€1,051.07), Ireland (€983.66), and the UK (€936.10). Those aged 15-24 years had the lowest median weekly earnings and within that age group, the nationality with the lowest median weekly income was Irish at €352.62, followed by those from India at €386.74.

Additional insight of the impact of age on median earnings can be seen when comparing youth employment (those aged 15-24 years) with the general working population (those aged 25-64 years). Nationalities with a higher proportion of employees in the 15-19 years age group tended to have lower youth median earnings. For instance, 5.1% of Irish nationals in employment were aged 15-19 years, compared with 1.6% for non-Irish nationals. The median weekly earnings for Irish nationals aged 15-24 years was €352.62, whereas it was €462.51 for non-Irish nationals. Further analysis from the CSO's Labour Force Survey (LFS) shows that a higher proportion (63.4%) of Irish nationals aged 15-19 years worked 19.5 hours or less per week, compared with 33.8% of non-Irish nationals. In the general working age population, the hours worked by Irish nationals and non-Irish nationals were similar, with median weekly earnings of €882.35 for Irish nationals and €705.52 for non-Irish nationals.

Looking further at age and sector of employment, Indian nationals had the highest median weekly earnings at €876.04 and had fewer young and older people in employment. Indian nationals had a high proportion of employments in sectors that have high median earnings with over half (56.9%) of employments with Indian nationality in the sectors of Information & Communication, Human Health & Social Work ,and Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities.

Brazilian nationals had a similar age distribution with median weekly earnings of €563.69. Nearly half of all Brazilian nationals (49.9%) had employments in Wholesale & Retail Trade (€536.36), Accommodation & Food Services (€440.28), and Administrative & Support Services (€435.79), which were all below the national median weekly earnings of €730.89.

Looking at employment and age spread, the Irish national population had a more evenly distributed age spread of employees with a higher proportion of younger and older people in employment compared with those from India and Brazil. For Irish nationals, 26.4% of employments were in the 15-24 years and 60 years and over age groups, while for Indian nationals this figure was 6.8% and for Brazilian nationals it was 9.2%. In the younger and older population, wages tended to be lower which influenced the median earnings.

Economic Sector

In 2024, the economic sector with the highest median weekly earnings was Information & Communication at €1,440.36. Within this sector, the highest paid nationalities were those from the UK (€1,539.90), India (€1,512.82), and Spain (€1,491.42). The sector with the lowest median weekly earnings was Accommodation & Food Services at €391.62. The lowest paid nationalities in this sector were Irish (€304.32) and Indian (€387.12). The composition of economic sectors in terms of participation rates and age both affected weekly earnings."

Editor's Note

This release explores the composition of Ireland’s labour market and earnings by nationality. The analysis includes nationalities that made up the top 10 employments in Ireland in 2024.

Firstly, the release examines the change in composition of labour market employments and changes to the mean, median, and distribution of earnings by nationality over a five-year period.

Secondly, with a focus on 2024, it analyses the age of the different nationalities participating in the labour market and the effect on earnings associated with age and nationality.

Lastly, this release looks at economic activity in each sector by nationality along with a breakdown of the economic activity by each nationality in 2024.

Note: This analysis uses an October only reference

This release presents statistics on earnings based on administrative data sources. The primary data source is employee tax data from the Revenue Commissioners also known as PMOD, which is linked to data from the CSO and other sources to provide demographic breakdowns of earnings.

Some earnings figures may be different to 1 cent from the Earnings Analysis using Administrative Data Sources 2024 due to rounding.