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Ability To Make Ends Meet

Ability to make ends meet

Half of households have at least some difficulties in making ends meet

CSO statistical publication, , 11am

SILC data 2020 to 2022 was revised on 7 March 2024 due to changes made to weights, reflecting updated household population benchmarks, because of the availability of Census 2022 data.
The data in Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Enforced Deprivation 2022 was published on 23 November 2022 and does not reflect these revisions. For the most up to date deprivation data, which reflect revised population benchmarks from Census revisions, please see SILC Enforced Deprivation 2023 or PxStat.

In SILC, weights are applied to the data to ensure the results are reflective of the population as a whole. In 2022, the SILC Enforced Deprivation publication was released early, before the income data was fully processed, to provide more timely statistics on households. Following the processing of the income data and coherence checks with administrative data sources, the weights used for SILC 2022 data have been refined. Adjustments were made in the non-response process and the calibration boundaries, reducing the variance of the weights and improving the accuracy of the estimates. As a result, estimates contained in the SILC 2022 Enforced Deprivation publication have been revised. Please see the information note which compares published and revised results.

Households were asked to rate their self-perceived level of difficulty in making ends meet, with the answer options being: ‘with great difficulty’; ‘with difficulty’; ‘with some difficulty’; ‘fairly easily’; ‘easily’; ‘very easily’.

5.9%
of households
had great difficulty in making ends meet in 2022
compared with 5.6% in 2021
Source: CSO Ireland, Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Enforced Deprivation 2022

One in two households (50.8%) said they had at least some difficulty in making ends meet in 2022, compared with 42.0% of households in 2021. One in twenty (5.9%) had great difficulty in making ends meet. See figure 4.1 and table 4.1a.

X-axis labelVery easilyEasilyFairly easilyWith some difficultyWith difficultyWith great difficulty
20227.31229.932.412.55.9
20219.314.833.927.29.25.6
20206.5133430.79.86
Table 4.1a Household ability to make ends meet by levels of difficulty, demographic characteristics and year (% of households)

Table 4.1b Household ability to make ends meet by levels of ease, demographic characteristics and year (% of households)

Three in four single adult household with children have at least some level of difficulty in making ends meet

By household composition, one adult households with children are the most likely to be experiencing at least some level of difficulty (75.9%) in making ends meet, while 9.8% had great difficulty. See figure 4.2 and table 4.1a.

X-axis labelWith some difficultyWith difficultyWith great difficulty
1 adult aged 65
years and over
29.910.76.3
1 adult aged less
than 65 years
33.1138.2
2 adults, at least 1 aged
65 years and over
27.5122.4
2 adults, both aged
less than 65 years
27.910.23.7
3 or more adults28.910.94.1
1 adult, with children
under 18 years
45.520.69.8
2 adults, with 1-3
children under 18 years
37.3145.8
Other households with
children under 18 years
35.912.411

One in ten rented households have great difficulty in making ends meet

By tenure, seven in ten (69.4%) of rented or rent-free households have at least some level of difficulty in making ends meet, compared with four in ten (42.3%) owner-occupied households. One in ten (10.5%) of rented or rent-free households had great difficulty in making ends meet. See figure 4.3 and table 4.1a.

X-axis labelVery easilyEasilyFairly easilyWith some difficultyWith difficultyWith great difficulty
Rented or rent free3.56.620.54117.910.5
Owner-occupied914.534.128.5103.8

Nine in ten households living in enforced deprivation have at least some level of difficulty making ends meet

Of households experiencing enforced deprivation, more than nine in ten (94.2%) had at least some difficulty in making ends meet, with 23.7% having great difficulty. One in four (40.8%) of households not experiencing enforced deprivation had at least some difficulty in making ends meet, with 1.8% having great difficulty. See figure 4.4 and table 4.1.

X-axis labelVery easilyEasilyFairly easilyWith some difficultyWith difficultyWith great difficulty
Experiencing deprivation0.10.25.640.53023.7
Not experiencing deprivation8.914.835.530.68.41.8