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The income reference period of SILC in year T is the calendar year T-1, i.e. for SILC 2024 the income relates to January-December 2023.
In 2024, 8.0% of people who said they were ‘severely limited’ in usual activities because of a health problem were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm. The comparable rate for people who were ‘not limited’ was 3.7%.
Overall, 12.9% of households with a ‘severely limited’ household member reported there was at least one occasion in the past 12 months where they failed to pay a utility bill on time due to financial difficulties. In comparision with 7.0% of households where all household members aged 16 and over described themselves as ‘not limited’.
The at risk of poverty rate for people with a self-reported chronic illness was 15.5%, compared with 9.1% for those without a chronic illness.
The enforced deprivation rate for people who described their health as ‘very bad’ was 27.8%, while the rate for those with 'very good’ health was 9.4%.
The consistent poverty rate for people ‘severely limited’ in usual activities because of a health problem was more than three times higher (10.6%) than the rate for those ‘not limited’ (3.1%).
Four in ten (41.4%) households with a ‘severely limited’ household member regarded total housing costs as a heavy financial burden compared with 25.5% of households where no one was ‘limited’.
For those who reported ‘very good’ general health in 2024, the prevalence of feeling lonely ‘all the time’ was 0.1%, whereas this rose to 4.2% for those who reported having ‘bad or very bad’ general health.
The annual Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) results are weighted using population estimates which are generated on an ongoing basis. Census of Population 2022 results have been used to revise population estimates for 2020 to 2022, and consequently results for SILC survey years 2020, 2021, and 2022 are revised. Please see the Information Note which compares published and revised results.
The SILC is a household survey covering a broad range of topics related to income and living conditions. It is the official source of data on household and individual income and provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as the at risk of poverty rate, the consistent poverty rate, and rates of enforced deprivation. This is the fifth release from the 2024 round of the SILC. This release focuses on poverty related indicators and well-being indicators, analysed by self-reported health status variables.
Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) Enforced Deprivation 2024, published 11 March 2025, focused on deprivation.
Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2024, published 20 March 2025, focused on poverty and income indicators.
Well-being - Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2024, published 25 March 2025, focused on life satisfaction and other well-being indicators.
SILC Module on Child Deprivation 2024, published 08 May 2025, focused on child-specific deprivation rates.
To determine Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI) status, SILC survey respondents aged 16 years and older were asked the following question with three answer options.
Q. Are you limited because of a health problem in activities people usually do? Would you say you are:
Respondents who answered 'Severely limited' or 'Limited but not severely' were asked a further question:
Q. Have you been limited for at least the past six months?
Respondents who were 'severely limited' in usual activities for at least six months prior to their interview date are classified as 'severely limited', those 'limited but not severely' for at least six months are classified as 'limited but not severely'. Respondents who answered, 'Not limited at all', along with respondents limited for less than six months, are classified as not limited.
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.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (31 July 2025) published further results from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for 2024. This release presents results for poverty indicators and well-being indicators for people aged 16 years and older analysed by their self-perceived general health status, long-standing limitations in usual activities and self-reported chronic illness status.
The Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI) measures long-standing health related activity limitations. The Editor’s Note below describes the questions used to derive the GALI status of survey respondents aged 16 years and older. The Note also includes the questions asked and associated answer options related to respondents’ self-perceived general health and the presence of a chronic illness.
Commenting on today’s release, Paul Christopher, Statistician in the Income, Consumption and Wealth Division, said:
“Today’s results from the CSO’s SILC 2024 show that poverty rates and rates of enforced deprivation were higher and self-perceived well-being was lower in respondents with a self-reported chronic illness, in respondents who reported long-standing limitations in their usual activities due to health problems, and in respondents who described their health as ‘bad or very bad’.
Deprivation Rates Higher among those with Severe Activity Limitation
In SILC, the identification of people living in enforced deprivation is currently achieved based on a set of 11 basic deprivation indicators (See Survey on Income and Living Conditions Fact Sheet).
People ‘severely limited’ for at least six months in usual activities because of a health problem had higher rates of deprivation for each of the 11 deprivation indicators when compared with those who described themselves as ‘not limited’. For example, 8.0% of people who were ‘severely limited’ were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm compared with 3.7% of people who were ‘not limited’.
In 2024, 14.2% of people who were ‘severely limited’ were unable to afford new (not second-hand) clothes, compared with 4.4% of people who were ‘not limited’. Almost 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 compared with 7.8% of people ‘not limited’ in usual activities.
Enforced deprivation is where a household experiences two or more of the 11 deprivation items. The enforced deprivation rate for those aged 16 and over was 14.1% in 2024. This rate varied greatly depending on the self-perceived health status, chronic illness status, and long-standing activity limitation status of survey respondents. The enforced deprivation rate for people who described their health in general as ‘very bad’ was almost three times higher than the rate for those with ‘very good’ health (27.8% and 9.4% respectively). The enforced deprivation rate was eight percentage points higher at 20.0% for those with a self-reported chronic illness when compared with those without a chronic illness (12.0%). In 2024, almost one in four (28.2%) people who described themselves as ‘severely limited’ in usual activities were living in enforced deprivation. This compares with 20.1% of people who were ‘limited but not severely' and 12.2% of those who said they were ’not limited’.
Poverty Rates by Self-Reported Health Status
The 2024 at risk of poverty rate for those aged 16 and over was 10.8%, up from 9.5% in 2023. The rate for people with a self-reported chronic illness was 15.5%, compared with 9.1% for those without a chronic illness. The at risk of poverty rate for people who perceived their health as ‘very bad’ was three times the rate for those with a ‘very good’ perception of their health (25.5% and 8.2% respectively). More than one-fifth (22.9%) of people who were ‘severely limited’ in usual activities were at risk of poverty in 2024. The comparable rate for those ‘limited but not severely' was 16.9%, and 9.0% for those who were ‘not limited’.
The consistent poverty measure is defined as people who are both at risk of poverty and experiencing enforced deprivation. In 2024, 4.0% of those aged 16 and over nationally were living in consistent poverty. The rate for people who were ‘severely limited’ in their usual activities was 10.6%, more than three times higher than the 3.1% rate for those ‘not limited’.
Utility Bills Arrears among Households with a Severely Limited Person
Overall, 12.9% of households with a person who was ‘severely limited’ in usual activities for a period of at least six months, reported there was at least one occasion in the past 12 months where they failed to pay a utility bill on time due to financial difficulties. The comparable rate for households where all household members aged 16 and over were ‘not limited’ was 7.0%.
Households with a ‘severely limited’ household member reported greater difficulty in making ends meet and greater financial burden of total housing costs. In 2024, 13.0% of households with a ‘severely limited’ household member reported great difficulty in making ends meet. The rate for households where all household members were ‘not limited’ was 3.6%.
Households were asked the extent to which housing costs (rent, mortgage, utility costs, home insurance, and regular maintenance and repair costs) were a burden. The answer categories were: 'a heavy burden'; 'somewhat a burden'; 'not a burden at all'. Two-fifths (41.4%) of households with a ‘severely limited’ household member considered housing costs a heavy burden. This was significantly higher than the rate for households where all household members were ‘not limited’ (25.5%).
Self-Perceived Well-being
For those who reported ‘very good’ general health in 2024, the prevalence of feeling lonely ‘all the time’ was 0.1%, whereas this rose to 4.2% for those who reported having ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’ general health.
In 2024, respondents who reported having a chronic illness were more than twice as likely to report feeling 'downhearted or depressed' at least some of the time in the four-week period prior to their interview than those who reported having no such chronic illness (28.9% and 10.7% respectively).”