Housing, inflation and cost of living, and the availability, quality or affordability of essential services such as education and healthcare were identified as the top three issues facing Ireland in 2025.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents identified the availability, quality, or affordability of housing as one of the three most important issues facing the country. This was the highest percentage recorded for this issue across the 38 countries surveyed in 2025.
Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents reported inflation and cost of living to be a top three issue facing Ireland in 2025. The average for all countries surveyed was 52%.
Almost four in ten (38%) men and half (52%) of women reported the availability, quality, or affordability of essential services such as education and healthcare as a top three issue facing the country, placing it third in terms of importance.
A quarter (25%) of respondents reported climate change or other threats to the environment as a top three issue facing the country, making it the fourth most important issue. The comparable rate in 2023 was 40%.
A quarter (24%) of respondents in Ireland reported immigration as a top three issue facing the country in 2025, compared with 16% in 2023. The average for all countries surveyed was 25% in 2025.
Almost three in ten (28%) of those aged 50 years and over considered crime to be a top three issue facing the country, more than double the rate (13%) of those aged 18 to 29 years.
Ireland was one of 38 countries that participated in the 2023 round of the OECD Trust Survey, which also included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
Respondents were asked “What do you think are the three most important issues facing your country?”. Response options were as follows. A subset of these response options are included in the international statistics. All are included for the national statistics.
There were two additional categories added in 2025. These categories were Relationship with other countries and National security (e.g. war, terrorism). National security (e.g. war, terrorism) replaced the Defence / Foreign affairs category which was asked in 2023. Caution should be taken when comparing 2023 to 2025 as a result.
Ranking is based on unrounded figures; values may appear identical due to rounding for display purposes. For example, 64% of respondents chose the availability, quality, or affordability of housing and 64% of respondents chose inflation and cost of living to be top three issues. However, the unrounded figures show the availability, quality, or affordability of housing to be first in the ranking.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (23 September 2026) published results on respondents views on issues facing the country from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Trust Survey 2025. This is the third in a series of CSO releases from the Trust Survey 2025.
It also coincides with Sustainable Development Goals week, an annual nationwide and European event dedicated to raising awareness, promoting local action, and fostering accountability for the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Commenting on today’s release, Sarah Crilly, Statistician in the Social Cohesion and Sustainable Development Goals Division, said: “Ireland was one of 38 countries that participated in the OECD Trust Survey 2025, with the previous Trust Surveys taking place in 2021 and 2023. In addition to questions on trust, the survey asked respondents to choose the top three issues facing their country from thirteen topics. These included the availability, quality or affordability of housing, inflation and cost of living, and availability, quality or affordability of healthcare and education services. The results are based on more than 77,000 people taking part in the survey across 38 countries, with 2,194 responses gathered in Ireland.
Housing
In Ireland, almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents reported the availability, quality or affordability of housing as one of the three most important issues facing the country, down from 71% in 2023. This was the highest percentage for this issue of any country surveyed in 2025, followed by Luxembourg at 50% and Iceland at 36%. The OECD average was 20%.
More than eight in ten (84%) respondents aged 18 to 29 years considered the availability, quality, or affordability of housing to be a top three issue, compared with 63% for those aged 30 to 49 years and 59% for those aged 50 years and over.
The availability, quality, or affordability of housing was the issue most frequently identified as one of the top three issues facing the country in both the Eastern & Midland (66%) and Northern & Western (64%) regions. In the Southern region, housing ranked second (61%), with a higher proportion of respondents (67%) identifying inflation or the cost of living as one of the top three issues.
Inflation and Cost of Living
Almost two-thirds (64%) of respondents in Ireland reported inflation or cost of living to be one of the top three issues facing the country in 2025. This percentage was similar to that of the United Kingdom, at 61%.
A higher percentage of respondents aged 30 to 49 years (67%) considered inflation or cost of living to be a top three issue, compared with 59% of those aged 18 to 29 years. A lower percentage of retired respondents (60%) chose this topic as a top three issue, when compared with employed respondents (64%) and those unemployed or otherwise not working (67%).
Essential Services such as Healthcare and Education
Regarding the availability, quality or affordability of essential services such as healthcare and education, 45% of respondents in Ireland reported it as a top three issue in 2025. Only Iceland (52%) and Finland (49%) put this topic higher. In the United Kingdom, 25% of respondents reported the availability, quality or affordability of essential services as one of the top three issues.
In Ireland, there was a notable difference on the importance of this issue for men and women, with 38% of men and 52% of women ranking it among their top three issues.
Analysis by the employment status of the respondent showed that 51% of those who were unemployed or otherwise not working identified the availability, quality, or affordability of essential services as one of their top three issues compared with 36% of retired respondents.
In 2023, 57% of respondents in Ireland considered the availability, quality, or affordability of essential services such as healthcare and education to be a top three issue.
Climate Change
Regarding the environment, 25% of Irish respondents reported climate change and other threats to the environment as one of the top three issues facing the country, behind Japan at 38% and Denmark at 34%. In Ireland, men (27%) were slightly more likely than women (24%) to consider climate change to be a top three issue. Those aged 18 to 29 years (28%) were also slightly more inclined to consider it a top three issue compared with older cohorts. It was a top three issue for 25% of those aged 30 years and over.
In 2023, 40% of respondents in Ireland considered climate change and other threats to the environment to be a top three issue, 15 percentage points higher than in 2025.
Immigration
In 2025, a quarter (24%) of respondents in Ireland reported immigration as one of the top three issues facing the country, similar to the OECD average of 25%. In the United Kingdom, half (50%) of respondents considered immigration to be a top three issue. More than a quarter (27%) of those aged 50 years and over and one fifth (18%) of those aged 18 to 29 years considered it to be a top three issue facing Ireland. Previously in the 2023 survey, 16% of respondents in Ireland considered it to be a top three issue.
Crime
A quarter (24%) of respondents in Ireland reported crime or violence as one of the top three issues facing the country, the same as Portugal and Greece. Almost three in ten (28%) of those aged 50 years and over considered crime or violence to be a top three issue facing the country, compared with 13% of those aged 18 to 29 years.
Spread of Misinformation or Fake News
In 2025, 22% of respondents in Ireland identified the spread of misinformation or fake news as a top three issue, up from 15% in 2023. For those aged 18 to 29 years, this issue increased from 9% of respondents in 2023 to 21% in 2025.”