Ireland's UN SDG's - Goal 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth 2024

SDG 8.1.1 Annual Growth Rate of Real GDP per Capita

SDG 8.1.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per capita is published by the CSO, National Accounts Division.

Definition: In the UN SDG metadata repository the SDG 8.1.1 metadata document gives the definition as follows: Annual growth rate of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is calculated as the percentage change in the real GDP per capita between two consecutive years.

GDP - CSO’s National Accounts

GDP per capita and more detailed data is available from the CSO's Annual National Accounts 2024 publication. At current market prices, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita increased by 5.3% to €104,603 in 2024, while Gross National Product (GNP) per capita rose by 6.1% to €78,469. 

At constant market prices, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita increased by 0.7% to €100,063 in 2024, while Gross National Product (GNP) per capita rose by 1.4% to €75,026. See Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1.

At constant market prices, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased by 2.6% in 2024, while Gross National Product (GNP) rose by 3.3%. See GDP and Growth Rates in the CSO’s Annual National Accounts 2024 publication Table 4.2.

The National Accounts Division of the CSO published the County Incomes and GDP 2024.

Table 4.3 shows GDP by NUTS 3 region for 2023 to 2024.  

Dublin recorded the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per person in the State at €182,305, followed by the South-West region (Cork and Kerry) at €162,983. The lowest GDP per person in the State was recorded in the Border region at €32,617. Nationally, GDP per capita stood at €104,512 in 2024. See Table 4.3 and Map 4.1.

SDG 8.2.1 Annual Growth Rate of Real GDP per Employed Person

SDG 8.2.1 Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person is published by the CSO, National Accounts Division.

Definition: In the UN SDG metadata repository the SDG 8.2.1 metadata document gives the definition as follows: The annual growth rate of real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per employed person conveys the annual percentage change in real GDP per employed person.

GDP - CSO’s National Accounts

GDP per employed person and more detailed data is available from the CSO's National Income and Expenditure 2024 publication. GDP at constant prices per employed person rose 13.5% between 2019 and 2024, from €172,087 to €195,245. Over this same time period, GNI at constant prices per employed person increased by 11.8% from €131,375 to €146,619. See Table 4.4 and Figure 4.2.

SDG 8.3.1 Proportion of Informal Employment in Total Employment, by Sector and Sex

SDG 8.3.1 Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex is published by the CSO, Labour Force Survey.

Definition: In the UN SDG metadata repository the metadata document for SDG 8.3.1 gives the definition as follows: this indicator presents the share of employment which is classified as informal employment in the total economy, and separately in agriculture and in non-agriculture.

Employment comprises all persons of working age who, during a short reference period (one week), were engaged in any activity to produce goods or provide services for pay or profit.

Informal employment comprises persons who in their main or secondary jobs were in one of the following categories:

• Own-account workers, employers and members of producers’ cooperatives employed in their own informal sector enterprises (the characteristics of the enterprise determine the informal nature of their jobs);
• Own-account workers engaged in the production of goods exclusively for own final use by their household (e.g. subsistence farming);
• Contributing family workers, regardless of whether they work in formal or informal sector enterprises (they usually do not have explicit, written contracts of employment, and are not subject to labour legislation, social security regulations, collective agreements, etc., which determines the informal nature of their jobs);
• Employees holding informal jobs, whether employed by formal sector enterprises, informal sector enterprises, or as paid domestic workers by households (employees are considered to have informal jobs if their employment relationship is, in law or in practice, not subject to national labour legislation, income taxation, social protection or entitlement to certain employment benefits).

For the purpose of classifying persons into formal or informal employment for this indicator, only the characteristics of the main job are considered.

An enterprise belongs to the informal sector if it fulfils the three following conditions: 

• It is an unincorporated enterprise (it is not constituted as a legal entity separate from its owners, and it is owned and controlled by one or more members of one or more households, and it is not a quasicorporation (it does not have a complete set of accounts, including balance sheets);
• It is a market enterprise (it sells at least some of the goods or services it produces);
• The enterprise is not registered or the employees of the enterprise are not registered or the number of persons engaged on a continuous basis is below a threshold determined by the country.

Employment data recently published by the CSO Labour Force Survey.

Labour Force Survey

According to the Labour Force Survey Quarter 4 2025 an estimated 2,833,100 persons were in employment in Q4 2025, up 2.0% (56,700) from 2,776,400 in Q4 2024.

There were more males in employment than females in recent years. In Q4 2025, there were 1.504 million males in employment compared with 1.329 million females.

The participation rate for males was 71.0%, higher than the rate for females of 60.8% in Q4 2025. The unemployment rate was slightly lower for females, at 4.3%, compared with 4.4% for males. See Table 4.5.

There were 86,800 males self employed with paid employees in Quarter 4 2025, compared with 185,700 males self employed with no paid employees. Therefore self employed males with employees accounted for 31.8% of all self employed males. Self employed females with employees accounted for 26.4% (28,000) of all self employed females. See Table 4.6.

About 53-54% of those in employment were male over the years 2015-2025. See Table 4.7

The self-employed are more likely to be male. Three in four (75.6%) self-employed with employees, and 70% self-employed without employees were male in 2025. 

Employment classified as 'Assisting Relative' was comprised of 52.1% males and 47.9% females. See Table 4.7.

The following tables present data for Quarter 4 2025, available on the CSO open data portal PxStat.

The main reasons given for being in part-time employment in 2025 were ‘School education or training' at 26.9%, followed by ‘Other reasons’ at 24.8%, and ‘Looking after children or incapacitated adults’ at 22.2%. See Table 4.8.

The number of employees grew from 1.746 million in 2015 to 2.436 million by 2025.

Over this time period, the proportion of employees who were permanently employed was very stable, ranging between 89.4% and 92.3%. See Table 4.9 and Figure 4.3.

The proportion of employees in temporary employment declined from 10.1% in 2019 to 6.9% in 2025. See Table 4.9 and Figure 4.3.

SDG 8.4.1 Material Footprint, Material Footprint per Capita, and Material Footprint per GDP

SDG 8.4.1 Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP, data are published by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD).

Definition: In the UN SDG metadata repository the SDG 8.4.1 metadata document gives the definition as follows: Material Footprint (MF) is the attribution of global material extraction to domestic final demand of a country. The total material footprint is the sum of the material footprint for biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals.

OECD Material Footprint

The material footprint rose in Ireland from 142.48 million tonnes in 2016 to 148.67 by 2023. 

However, the material footprint per person fell slightly over this time period, from 29.97 tonnes per person to 28.61 tonnes per person.

Material footprint increased from 2,620 to 4,010 US dollars per tonne, between 2016 and 2023. See Table 4.10.

SDG 8.4.2 Domestic Material Consumption, Domestic Material Consumption per Capita, and Domestic Material Consumption per GDP

SDG 8.4.2 Domestic Material Consumption, Domestic Material Consumption per capita, and Domestic Material Consumption per GDP is published by Eurostat in their Material Flow Accounts statistics.

Definition: In the UN SDG metadata repository the SDG 8.4.2 metadata document gives the definition as follows: Domestic Material Consumption (DMC) measures the total amount of material (biomass, fossil fuels, metal ores and non-metallic minerals, as well as mixed and complex products, and waste for final treatment and disposal) directly used in an economy and based on accounts of direct material flows, i.e., domestic material extraction and physical imports and exports.

Domestic Material Consumption

Domestic Material Consumption was estimated at 120.7 million tonnes in 2023 which was 6.4 million tonnes or 5.0% lower than in 2019.  The Domestic Material Consumption of non-metallic minerals decreased by 3.8 million tonnes or 6.4% between 2022 and 2023, and fossil fuels fell by 0.4 million tonnes or 2.9%. See Table 4.11.

Domestic Material Consumption was 22.7 tonnes per capita in 2023, down from 24.0 tonnes in 2022. See Table 4.12.