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In the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), the identification of people living in enforced deprivation is currently achieved using 11 basic deprivation indicators. See Survey on Income and Living Conditions Fact Sheet.
In March 2025, the CSO published Survey on Income and Living Conditions Enforced Deprivation 2024 which focused on the types of deprivation experienced and enforced deprivation rates by demographic and other characteristics.
The most common deprivation items At Risk of Poverty Indicators Explained (PDF 1,094KB) in 2024 for people aged 16 years and older were; being unable to afford to replace worn out furniture (15.5%), unable to afford a morning, afternoon or evening out in the last fortnight (9.1%) and being unable to get together once a month with family or friends for a drink or a meal (8.9%). See Figure 2.1 and PxStat table SIH01.
The Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI) measures long-standing health related activity limitations. The Editor’s note in the Key findings section of this report describes the questions used to derive the GALI status of survey respondents aged 16 years and older.
Analysis of deprivation experienced in 2024 by the GALI status of survey respondents shows that people ‘severely limited’ for at least six months in usual activities because of health problems had higher rates of deprivation for each of the 11 deprivation indicators when compared with those who were ‘not limited’. 8.0% of ‘severely limited’ people were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm compared with 3.7% of those ‘not limited’ in activity.
In 2024, the rate of those who described themselves as ‘severely limited’ and who were unable to afford new (not second-hand clothes) was more than three times higher (14.2%), compared with those ‘not limited’ (4.4%). About one in six (16.0%) ‘severely limited’ people were unable to afford to get together once a month with family or friends for a drink or a meal. This compares with 7.8% of people ‘not limited’. About one percent (1.5%) of people ‘not limited’ (because of a health problem) in usual activities for at least six months were unable to afford a meal with meat chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day. The rate for ‘severely limited’ people was 2.6%. See Figure 2.2 and PxStat table SIH01.
Enforced deprivation is where a household experiences two or more of the 11 deprivation items referenced above. The percentage of people aged 16 years and older living in households experiencing enforced deprivation decreased by over two percentage points, from 16.3% in 2023 to 14.1% in 2024.
Analysis by the GALI status of survey respondents shows that the enforced deprivation rate in 2024 for ‘severely limited’ people dropped by nearly four percentages points from the 2023 rate (28.2% and 32.0% respectively). The enforced deprivation rate for people who were ‘limited but not severely’ was 20.1% in 2024 (down from 25.4% in 2023) and for those ‘not limited’ the 2024 rate was 12.2% (down by over a percentage point from 13.5% in 2023). See Figure 2.3 and PxStat table SIH04.
Survey respondents aged 16 years and over were asked two additional questions related to their health.
The first one related to self-perceived general health:
Q. How would you describe your health in general? Is it:
The second related to the presence of chronic morbidity:
Q. Do you have any long-standing illness or longstanding health problem? By long-standing I mean illnesses or health problems which have lasted, or are expected to last, for six months or more.
Analysis of enforced deprivation rates by self-perceived general health status shows that people with ‘bad’ health have much higher rates of enforced deprivation when compared with those with ‘good’ health. For example, the enforced deprivation rate for people who described their health in general as ‘very bad’ was 27.8%, almost three times the rate for people with ‘very good’ health (9.4%). See Figure 2.4 and PxStat table SIH02.
The enforced deprivation rate was eight percentage points higher for those with a self-reported chronic illness when compared with those without a chronic illness (20.0% and 12.0% respectively). See Figure 2.5, Table 2.1 and PxStat table SIH03.
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