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Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2018

Debt and Credit

The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) 2018 was published on 30 January 2020. Data within the publication was revised on 04 June 2020. These data revisions were due to the re-calibration of weights used in the estimation of HFCS statistics. Data within the publication was revised for a second time on 16 May 2023 and for a third time on 11 June 2025.

The second revision was primarily due to the supplementing of survey data with the Central Credit Register, an administrative data source obtained by the CSO in 2021. Content relating to HFCS 2018, including the text, graphs and tables, Infographic, and Press Release, now reflect the revised data from the second revision.

The third revision was due to the supplementing of survey data with administrative data from The Pension Authority relating to Personal Retirement Saving Accounts (PRSAs) and the re-calibration of weights. The content in this publication does not reflect this third revision.

For the most up to date data please see Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2023 and HFCS PxStat.

Debt

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Mortgage on the Household’s Main Residence (HMR)

Three in ten households (29.9%) have a mortgage on the HMR and there is a wide variability by age of the reference person. For example, only 3.7% of all households where the reference person is aged 65 or older have a mortgage on the HMR compared to 53.3% of households where the reference person is between 35 and 44 (See Table 4.1). The likelihood of having a mortgage rises with household income, (going from 6.9% for the bottom fifth of income distribution to 59.1% for the top fifth).

Table 4.1 Participation in debt by demographic and household characteristics

The median value of the outstanding balance of the mortgage on the HMR is €128,500 but varies from €148,100 in the Eastern & Midlands region to €111,100 in the Northern region (see Table 4.2).

Table 4.2 Median values of debt by demographic and household characteristics

Mortgage on Other Real Estate Property

While overall 9.4% of households have a mortgage on other property, this rises to 23.3% of households with the top fifth of household income (see Table 4.1).

Non-mortgage Loans

The percentage of households with non-mortgage loans is 46.4% but one adult households with children have a much higher rate of 61.0% (see Table 4.1).

Credit Card Debt

Some 39.8% of all households have credit card debt but this goes up to 53.0% for households with two adults and one to three children under 18 (see Table 4.1).

Total Debt

Households with children have the highest rates of debt. A third (33.1%) of one adult households aged 65 or over have debt in contrast to 88.2% of households with two adults and one to three children under 18 (see Figure 4.1).

	Percentage of households with any debt
2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18	88.2
Other households with children aged under 18	87.8
3 or more adults	82.2
2 adults, both aged <65	78.2
1 adult with children aged under 18	75.9
1 adult aged <65	65.2
2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+	57.6
1 adult aged 65+	33.1

Constraints on Credit

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One in ten (9.7%) households are considered credit-constrained in 2018. Single adult households with children are most likely to be credit constrained with 23.0% of these households falling into this category. This compares to 3.0% of single adult households over the age of 65.

Focusing on single adult households with children, just over half (55.7%) applied for credit in the 3-year period preceding their interview date and over a fifth (22.2%) of these households were either refused or didn’t get the full amount requested. Just over one out of every five (20.2%) single adult households with children considered applying for a loan at some time in the 3-year period but then decided not to, thinking that the application would be rejected (see Figure 4.2 and Table 4.3).

	2018
1 adult with children aged under 18	23
Other households with children aged under 18	12.7
2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18	12
2 adults, both aged <65	11.9
1 adult aged <65	11.3
3 or more adults	6.2
2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+	3.3
1 adult aged 65+	3

Table 4.3 Credit constraints by demographic and household characteristics

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Table 4.1 Participation in debt by demographic and household characteristics¹
	Mortgage on Household Main Residence (HMR)	Mortgage on Other Property	Non-mortgage loans	Overdraft	Credit Card	Any Debt
	%	%	%	%	%	%
State	29.9	9.4	46.4	10.7	39.8	71.8

Region
Northern and Western	24.7	10.1	40.5	9.8	30.9	65.5
Southern	29.7	9.3	46.1	10.4	36.0	69.8
Eastern and Midland	32.1	9.2	48.8	11.1	45.7	75.5

Household Composition
1 adult aged 65+	1.5	2.0	20.0	3.3	14.2	33.1
1 adult aged <65	22.1	7.6	40.5	5.3	25.7	65.2
2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+	4.8	6.1	23.9	7.1	37.9	57.6
2 adults, both aged <65	32.2	9.7	48.1	12.4	48.5	78.2
3 or more adults	29.4	12.4	56.5	18.0	51.0	82.2
1 adult with children aged under 18	19.4	8.8	61.0	13.2	20.6	75.9
2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18	56.5	12.9	59.8	12.1	53.0	88.2
Other households with children aged under 18	52.9	14.0	64.8	16.3	49.2	87.8

Percentile of Household Income
Less than 20	6.9	3.6	34.4	4.4	13.7	46.4
20-39	12.4	3.1	39.3	7.9	25.9	60.5
40-59	23.7	7.4	50.3	11.5	36.7	74.0
60-79	47.8	9.7	53.1	15.0	52.8	86.2
80-100	59.1	23.3	55.2	14.7	70.1	92.3

Age of Reference Person
Under 35	18.6	3.2	54.0	8.2	29.4	67.3
35-44	53.3	13.0	56.7	11.6	47.6	85.4
45-54	50.2	15.0	54.3	13.5	51.1	86.4
55-64	24.8	11.1	50.2	15.0	43.5	77.8
65+	3.7	4.1	23.5	5.7	27.2	46.3
¹ The data on this table was updated on 16/05/2023. Please see information note for details.
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/hfcs/informationnotehouseholdfinanceandconsumptionsurvey2018-revisions/

Table 4.2 Median values of debt by demographic and household characteristics¹
	Mortgage on Household Main Residence (HMR)	Mortgage on Other Property	Non-mortgage loans	Overdraft	Credit Card	Any Debt
	€000's	€000's	€000's	€000's	€000's	€000's
State	128.5	105.4	6.6	0.6	1.0	21.4

Region
Northern and Western	111.1	90.2	6.3	0.5	0.8	18.4
Southern	111.7	114.5	6.5	0.6	1.0	21.8
Eastern and Midland	148.1	107.1	6.8	0.6	1.2	22.2

Household Composition
1 adult aged 65+	*	*	2.9	*	0.6	2.0
1 adult aged <65	112.4	80.0	4.2	0.5	0.7	8.0
2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+	39.4	69.1	5.3	0.6	0.8	2.6
2 adults, both aged <65	108.7	89.8	8.5	0.9	1.2	18.1
3 or more adults	78.7	78.9	7.7	0.9	1.2	21.2
1 adult with children aged under 18	127.7	*	4.5	*	0.7	12.9
2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18	160.0	129.7	7.5	0.5	1.2	127.2
Other households with children aged under 18	110.8	172.2	7.8	0.5	1.5	65.1

Age of Reference Person
Under 35	160.3	86.4	4.5	0.4	0.6	6.1
35-44	157.9	131.4	7.7	0.5	1.0	136.8
45-54	104.4	108.0	7.7	0.5	1.4	65.5
55-64	58.9	94.1	5.8	1.3	1.5	13.6
65+	39.0	71.2	4.0	0.6	0.7	2.6
¹ The data on this table was updated on 16/05/2023. Please see information note for details.
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/hfcs/informationnotehouseholdfinanceandconsumptionsurvey2018-revisions/
* Sample occurrence too small for estimation because there are less than 25 observations.

Table 4.3 Credit constraints by demographic and household characteristics¹
	Applied for credit in the last 3 years	Refused or only received reduced credit (among those applying in the last 3 years)	Did not apply for credit due to perceived credit constraint	Credit constrained household
	%	%	%	%
State	45.6	10.5	6.4	9.7

Household Composition
1 adult aged 65+	18.1	6.1	2.0	3.0
1 adult aged <65	36.0	13.3	7.6	11.3
2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+	21.5	7.3	2.0	3.3
2 adults, both aged <65	52.8	12.2	6.4	11.9
3 or more adults	54.0	5.5	3.9	6.2
1 adult with children aged under 18	55.7	22.2	20.2	23.0
2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18	61.6	9.0	8.1	12.0
Other households with children aged under 18	62.1	12.4	7.5	12.7

Age of Reference Person
Under 35	56.1	12.4	9.7	14.4
35-44	61.6	11.1	9.2	13.7
45-54	50.1	10.8	8.2	11.3
55-64	45.3	10.1	4.3	8.2
65+	21.5	6.3	2.0	3.2
¹ The data on this table was updated on 16/05/2023. Please see information note for details.
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/in/hfcs/informationnotehouseholdfinanceandconsumptionsurvey2018-revisions/

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Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2018

Debt and Credit

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Constraints on Credit

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