Urban and Rural Life in Ireland, 2025

Income and Living Conditions

The CSO's Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in Ireland is a household survey covering a broad range of issues in relation to income, poverty, deprivation 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 and the consistent poverty rate. This report (Urban and Rural Life in Ireland 2026) takes some of the results from SILC 2024 and presents them reclassified by the six urban/rural area types.

In 2024, the nominal median annual equivalised disposable income (see Background Notes for details) in the State was €29,996, where Satellite urban towns had the highest at €36,981 and Highly rural/remote areas had the lowest at €24,636, see Table 4.1 and Figure 4.1.

The deprivation rate and deprivation rate for those at risk of poverty are highest for Independent urban towns at 22.5% and 52.9% respectively.

Household income highest in cities and lowest in the most rural areas

Satellite urban towns had the highest median household disposable income of the six classified areas in 2024 at €76,246 while Cities had the second highest at €66,131. Rural areas with high urban influence were the third highest at €62,446, higher than Independent urban towns at €53,180.

Using the same household income measure, income in Satellite urban towns was 87% higher than in Highly rural/remote areas (€40,839). See Table 4.2 and Figure 4.2.

Equivalised income lowest in Highly rural/remote areas

Equivalised disposable income was €24,636 in Highly rural/remote areas in 2024, the lowest among the six urban/rural area types.

In Independent urban towns, equivalised disposable income was €26,288, this was 24% lower than Cities (€34,462) and 29% lower than that of Satellite urban towns (€36,981).

For equivalised disposable income including old-age and survivors' benefits, and excluding all other social transfers, again Highly rural/remote areas have the lowest income at €18,400, followed by Independent urban towns at €21,141 (the State average in 2024 was €25,547).

Average household weekly income composition

Households in Satellite urban towns had the largest average weekly gross income in 2024 (direct income plus social transfers e.g. unemployment related payments) at €2,621. The State average was €1,891. Among the six area types, households in Satellite urban towns also had the lowest average weekly social transfers (at €175, compared to the State average €227) and the highest tax and social insurance contributions (at €949, compared to the State average €590).

In 2024, households in Satellite urban towns had the largest average weekly net disposable income at €1,673, followed by Cities (€1,462) and Rural areas with high urban influence (€1,335). Highly rural/remote areas had the lowest at €941, followed by Independent urban towns (€1,106).

The share of old-age related payments as a percentage of gross income was higher in rural areas, where it made up 10.7% of gross income in Highly rural/remote areas, and 6.4% in in Rural areas with moderate urban influence. In Cities and Satellite urban towns, old-age related payments made up 3.3% and 2.3% of gross income respectively, reflecting the younger age cohort in urban areas spoken about in Chapter 2. See Table 4.4 and Figure 4.3.

Poverty

In 2024, among the six urban/rural area types, the at risk of poverty rate, was highest in Independent urban towns at 17.0% (of individuals) while lowest in Satellite urban towns at 6.8%. The State equivalent rate was 11.7%.

An analysis of consistent poverty rates (as a percentage of individuals) shows that Independent urban towns have the highest rate at 9.0% compared to Rural areas with moderate urban influence at 2.6% (the lowest among the six area types). The consistent poverty rate for the State in 2024 was 5.0%. See Table 4.5 and Figure 4.4.

Independent urban towns had highest proportion of households where working age social welfare was majority of income

While the previous sections report on the CSO's 2024 Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC), the following analysis is based on the integration of administrative data including the 2022 Census, from the , a CSO Frontier Series Output.  

This analysis showed that in 2022 the proportion of households in the State where working age social welfare was the majority income was 10.9%. It was highest in Independent urban towns at 17.4% and lowest in Rural areas with high urban influence at 6.3% of households, see Table 4.7 and Figure 4.5.

Proportions of earnings from NACE sector by area type

The 'Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community', a classification system grouping business and organisations according to their activities, is commonly referred to as NACE. For this release the NACE sectors were combined into 7 major sectors. See Figure 4.6 and Table 4.8.

Proportion of earned income from Public service, Education and Health sectors highest in all rural and urban areas

In 2022, the proportion of earned income from Public Service, Education and Health ranged from 23.6% in Satellite urban towns to 31.3% in Independent urban towns. This was the largest sector in all six urban/rural area types, with the exception of Cities, where ICT, Scientific & Recreation was the largest at 29.3%. Around a quarter of all earnings in the State were in Public Service, Education and Health (25.3%).

Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing more prevalent in rural areas

While the proportion of income from Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing is minimal in Cities (0.1%) and urban areas in general, it ranged from 6.6% in Rural areas with high urban influence to 10.4% in Highly rural/remote areas.

Proportion of income from Industry sector higher in rural areas and Independent urban towns

The proportion of income from the Industry sector was lowest in Cities (11.4%) and Satellite urban towns (15.9%), while in the remaining areas it ranged between 17.8% in Independent urban towns to 19.8% in Rural areas with high urban influence.

Cities have highest number of persons in employment

The results of the CSO's Labour Force Survey (LFS) provide the basis for the official series of quarterly labour force estimates, including unemployment rates. The six way urban/rural classification has been applied to the survey results for the quarters Q1 2024 to Q1 2025, producing the following. The number of people at work in the State increased from 2,704,200 in Q1 2024 to 2,794,100 in Q1 2025, an increase of 89,900 (or 3.3%). Among the six different area types, the largest percentage increase in the number of people in employment between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025 was in Highly rural/remote areas (+ 12.1% or 25,700 workers). See Figure 4.7 and Table 4.9.

Unemployment rate highest in Independent urban towns

The unemployment rate of the State in Q1 2025 was 4.3% (an increase of 0.2 percentage points from 4.1% in Q1 2024). The rate of unemployment increased for all three urban area types, as well as for the State, from Q1 2024 to Q1 2025. Independent urban towns had the highest unemployment rate in Q1 2025 at 5.9%, with Rural areas with high urban influence having the lowest, at 2.2%, see Figure 4.8.

Participation rate highest in Satellite urban towns and lowest in Highly rural/remote areas

The Participation Rate is the number of persons aged 15 and over in the labour force expressed as a percentage of the total population aged 15 or over. In Q1 2025 the participation rate for the State was 65.8%, up from 65% a year previously. See Figure 4.9.

Satellite urban towns had the highest participation rate in Q1 2025 at 71.7% (increase of 3.4 percentage points on Q1 2024), followed by Cities at 68.1% (stable over the year) and Rural areas with high urban influence at 65.9% (-0.6 percentage points from Q1 2024, and the only area type to record a decrease). Rural areas with moderate urban influence participation rate was at 64.4% (+2.1), Independent urban towns at 63.5% (+0.6) and the lowest was 58.8% in Highly rural/remote areas (+1.8).

Higher proportion of persons in rural areas work part time

In Q1 2025, part-time workers account for 21.2% of all workers in the State. Highly rural/remote areas had the highest proportion of part-time workers at 25.6% followed by Rural areas with moderate urban influence (23.4%) and Rural areas with high urban influence (22.7%). Cities had the lowest proportion of part-time workers, at 19.2%, followed by Satellite urban towns at 20%. See Figure 4.10 and Table 4.10.

Self-employment more prevalent in rural areas

A higher number of persons were self-employed in the combined rural areas (181,100) compared to the combined urban areas (172,200), see Table 4.11. In Q1 2025, Highly rural/remote areas had the highest proportion of self-employed among persons in employment at 22.2%, while Cities had the lowest at 9.4%, see Figure 4.11.