Following the Household Saving release of 12 June 2026, revised data published in the Annual National Accounts (ANA) 2025 of 02 July 2026 has resulted in an increased household saving rate. The revisions have had a notable effect on the time-series back to the COVID pandemic period. The seasonally adjusted average since the start of 2023 was previously recorded as 12.7%, while in the revised series it is now 18.7%.
Household saving is the difference between two much larger numbers and is calculated as household disposable income minus household consumption expenditure (or money into the household minus money out equals saving). The household saving rate is the euro value of saving in a period expressed as a percentage of the total disposable income. Because saving is smaller than income or expenditure, relatively small changes in the value of either income or expenditure (or both) can produce much larger changes in the saving value and the saving ratio.
As an example, if disposable income in a period was €10bn and consumption expenditure was €9bn then saving will be €1bn. But if income increases by 5% and expenditure decreases by 5%, then saving will almost double to €1.95bn (+95%).
In the recent Annual National Accounts, income has been revised upwards while expenditure has been revised downwards. The combination of these two revisions, going back several years with both moving in opposite directions, has led to the change in the level of household saving. The seasonally adjusted data series which includes Gross Disposable Income, Personal Consumption of Goods and Services and Gross Saving of the Household including Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISH) is available on PxStat. Only the most significant transactions are shown in the table for each sector in this release: the entire unadjusted series for all variables published in this release are also available at the same link. Price-adjusted Total Disposable Income and Final Consumption Expenditure of Households are shown in PxStat ISQ04.
For further details of revisions see Tables 4.1 and 4.2, as well as Figure 4.1, in the Background Notes.
In Quarter 2 (Q2) 2026, the seasonally adjusted household saving rate was provisionally estimated to be 19.9%, or almost €1 in €5 of household disposable income.
This saving rate was up from 19.1% in Q1 2026, and above the average of 18.7% since the start of 2023.
After adjustments for seasonal patterns, Irish household disposable incomes (+3.0%) increased more than household consumption (+2.1%) from Q1 2026, leading to the higher saving rate.
In the year to Q2 2026 (Q3 2025 to Q2 2026) households saved €39bn, with disposable income of €198bn and consumption expenditure of €159bn.
Household saving was 19.9% in April, May, and June (Q2) 2026, compared with 19.1% in Q1 2026 (current price seasonally adjusted). As Figure 1 shows, this is higher than the 18.7% average across the fourteen quarters since the start of 2023. As the ratio depends on two larger aggregates (Total Disposable Income and Final Consumption Expenditure), it is liable to change each quarter.
Household saving can be added to wealth as real assets (such as new homes), or financial assets (such as deposits), or as paying off liabilities (such as mortgage debt). In Q2 2026, before adjusting for seasonality or inflation, households saved €11.2bn. Investment in dwellings and improvements (most of which was by households) was over €6bn. Additions to pension funds (D.8) were €1bn. A revised and more detailed household saving estimate from the non-financial accounts will be published by the CSO in the coming weeks. A quarterly breakdown of changes in financial assets and liabilities will be published by the Central Bank.
Ireland's unadjusted saving rate over the twelve post-pandemic quarters of 2023-2025 averaged 18.5%. This was above the EU27 average and was one of the highest average rates among reporting EU Member States. While this was below the 22% average across 2020-2022, when the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions caused it to rise, it was well above the 2017-2019 pre-pandemic average of 13.4%. Ireland was above the EU27 average rate in all three periods.
The average rate after the pandemic has been higher in all reporting EU Member States than before the pandemic. This increase varies across EU Member States. In some countries such as Czechia, Denmark, and Spain, the saving rate after the pandemic was notably higher than it was before whereas in Italy, Belgium and Germany the average rate increase was much smaller. Figure 2 illustrates the averages for reporting countries before, during, and after the pandemic ordered by the average rate across 2023-2025.
The EU27 average rate across the twelve quarters of 2023-2025 was over two percentage points higher than the 2017-2019 pre-COVID-19 average (14.1% up from 11.7%). Germany, the largest economy in the EU, had a saving rate of 19.5% in the 2023-2025 period, up from 17.9% in 2017-2019. Czechia had the highest recorded saving rate at 19.8% in 2023-2025, and also showed the biggest rate increase from before the pandemic when it was 11.4%.
| 2017-2019 average pre-pandemic | 2020-2022 average during pandemic | 2023-2025 average post-pandemic | |
| Greece | -4.54471480607605 | 0.0936491559631911 | -2.51589262459285 |
| Romania | -7.21600267237114 | -2.42990520708568 | -0.455108100789017 |
| Poland | 5.12476350839689 | 5.95089807126714 | 7.22624269281391 |
| Portugal | 6.37150350627235 | 9.73953863584202 | 10.8552025737714 |
| Italy | 10.5543496496435 | 14.9531718465826 | 11.1560057462652 |
| Spain | 6.10765078883346 | 13.0607688401054 | 11.5323309008422 |
| Finland | 9.50402405138406 | 12.1953289667779 | 12.2300193669924 |
| Belgium | 11.0376355607514 | 15.8238472168181 | 12.6307742875974 |
| EU 27 | 11.7132963749455 | 15.6978312359466 | 14.0687836911659 |
| Denmark | 8.9216387351395 | 8.78782054643466 | 14.2187918714762 |
| Austria | 12.6668317486138 | 16.8810862596747 | 15.6638767677712 |
| Netherlands | 13.6748 | 18.20 | 15.9943 |
| Sweden | 14.9198294869628 | 16.8440039727047 | 17.0041318622223 |
| France | 13.6674288030117 | 18.1785910416307 | 17.1424150372832 |
| Ireland | 13.44 | 22.03 | 18.48 |
| Hungary | 14.6008054724033 | 16.8182218592582 | 18.808589042526 |
| Germany | 17.9169863750444 | 21.4108304200551 | 19.5190771113698 |
| Czechia | 11.3679937922268 | 18.8261003928096 | 19.7980214439052 |
Data in Figure 2 comes from both CSO and Eurostat.
In Q2 2026 household spending on goods and services was €41bn, an increase of 2.9% on the first quarter of 2026, before price or seasonal adjustments. When seasonal factors are taken into account, final consumption of households increased by 2.1% in the second quarter of 2026. When the effect of price changes is also removed, the volume of consumption increased by 1.0%. The changes in consumption before and after price and seasonal adjustment are shown in Figure 3.
"Household Consumption" and "Individual Consumption Expenditure" in this release both mean Final Consumption Expenditure (FCE) of Households (code P.3 in the European System of Accounts). This is less than the item "Personal Consumption Expenditure" in the Quarterly National Accounts, which includes both FCE of households and Purchased Market Production funded by Social Transfers in Kind from Government (code D.632). Therefore, the changes in household Individual Consumption Expenditure in this release differ from those reported in the Quarterly National Accounts.
FCE at constant prices is deflated based on price changes for households resident here, including expenditure by Irish residents when they go abroad, but excluding expenditure by foreign tourists here in Ireland. This differs from the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which excludes expenditure by Irish residents abroad and includes expenditure of foreign tourists within Ireland.
Total Disposable Income (TDI) of households was €52.3bn in the quarter before adjustment. After adjustment for seasonal factors, this was 3% higher than the first quarter of 2026. After adjustment for price as well as seasonal factors, income was 1.7% higher than Q1 2026. The changes in TDI before and after price and seasonal adjustment are shown in Figure 4.
The largest component of household income is Compensation of Employees (CoE). In Q2 2026, unadjusted CoE contributed €43.4bn to the total TDI of €52.3bn. In addition to wages, TDI also includes other income such as self-employed earnings, interest and dividends received and social benefits (such as Child Benefit), but is after deduction of income taxes, social contributions (such as PRSI) and interest paid. More detail will be published in the Institutional Sector Accounts release next month.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (11 September 2026) published Household Saving Quarter 2 (Q2) 2026.
Commenting on the release, Mark Manto, Statistician in the National Accounts Analysis & Globalisation Division, said: "Households saved 19.9%, or almost €1 in €5 of their disposable income in April, May, and June (Q2) 2026, above the 18.7% average since the start of 2023. This was an increase on the 19.1% seasonally adjusted household saving rate of Q1 2026.
Saving can add to a household's overall wealth in the form of buying new homes, growing bank deposits, pension savings, and paying off debt.
The rise in the seasonally adjusted household saving rate from Q1 2026 was due to a greater increase in household disposable income than household final consumption.
Today's results are preliminary and are subject to revision after the publication of the Institutional Sector Accounts for Q2 2026 release in the coming weeks."