In the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2023, 28.9% of people aged 16 and over reported a high level of satisfaction with their overall life, up from 24.4% in 2022 and 21.4% in 2021.
Almost one in three male (32.1%) respondents reported their overall life satisfaction level as high, compared with one in four (25.9%) female respondents.
One in ten (10.2%) male respondents reported feeling lonely at least sometimes in the four-week period prior to their SILC interview. The comparable rate for female respondents was almost twice that at 18.0%.
Just over one in five (21.4%) male respondents reported a low satisfaction level with the time they have available for enjoyable activities, compared with more than one in four (26.6%) female respondents.
More than four in ten (42.3%) self-employed respondents reported a high satisfaction level with their job. The comparable rate for semi-state employees was 35.4%, 30.7% for public sector employees, and 25.3% for private sector employees.
Overall, 15.2% of unemployed respondents reported they do not have somebody outside their household they can ask for help. The comparable rate for retirees was 4.2%.
Almost one in four (23.0%) respondents living in owner-occupied accommodation reported high overall satisfaction with the financial situation of their household. The comparable rate for respondents living in rented accommodation was over three times lower at 7.3%.
SILC is a household survey covering a broad range of topics relating to income and living conditions. It is the official source of data on household and individual income and provides key national poverty indicators, such as the at risk of poverty rate, the consistent poverty rate, and rates of enforced deprivation. Results published in today’s report relate to answers given directly by survey respondents aged 16 years and older.
Different modules are conducted as part of SILC each year to complement the variables that are permanently collected in the survey. This means it is not possible to create a time series for questions included as part of a module. For example, every three years the SILC survey includes a module on Health in which additional health-related information is collected from household members. This means the results for these indicators are only available for the year in which the indicator was collected. The SILC 2022 module included questions on levels of satisfaction with personal relationships and with time use (i.e. time available for enjoyable activities); frequency of feeling happy; feeling ‘left out’; and having someone outside the household to ask for help. These questions were not asked in the 2023 SILC survey.
As part of the process of revising population estimates for SILC 2020 to 2022 using Census of Population 2022 data, a change to the population benchmark definition was also implemented. Under the EU Integration of European Social Statistics (IESS) framework regulation the total of the usually resident population living in private households are used as the SILC population benchmarks. These benchmarks do not include those people living in communal establishments.
These are audio files with 30-second quotes from CSO Senior Statistician Gerry Reilly with the Income Consumption and Wealth (ICW) Division, about Well-being 2023 Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC).
Media outlets have permission to use the clips as long as they credit the CSO.
When it comes to overall life satisfaction, almost three in ten people aged 16 and over reported a high level of satisfaction with their lives in 2023. This was up from two in ten in 2021 when COVID-19-related public health restrictions were in place.
Looking at loneliness, we can see that women were almost twice as likely as male respondents to feel lonely. Just over 10% of men reported feeling lonely compared with 18% of women.
Whether you rented or owned your home had an impact on financial satisfaction. Almost 23% of respondents living in owner-occupied accommodation reported high overall satisfaction with the financial situation of their household, which was three times higher than the rate for those living in rented accommodation at just over 7%.
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Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (16 May 2024) issued well-being results from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2023. Today’s report also contains results for additional well-being indicators that were collected in the 2022 SILC survey.
Commenting on today’s release, Gerry Reilly, Senior Statistician in the Income, Consumption and Wealth Division, said:
“Respondents to the SILC survey were asked to rate their satisfaction levels with various aspects of their lives (such as their overall life satisfaction and satisfaction with the financial situation of their households) on a scale from 0 (‘Not at all satisfied’) to 10 (‘Completely satisfied’). The mean score for each satisfaction level indicator was calculated by adding individual scores and dividing the total by the number of individuals. In this publication, the responses for the satisfaction level indicators are also grouped as low (0-5), medium (6-8), and high (9-10).
The data collection phase of the SILC survey occurs during the first six months of the SILC reference year. It is worth remembering that in the SILC 2021, COVID-19-related public health restrictions were in place during the January to June data collection period, including Level 5 restrictions for more than half of this period.
Main Results
Almost three in ten (28.9%) respondents reported high levels of satisfaction with their overall life, up from two in ten (21.4%) respondents in 2021. The percentage of respondents reporting low overall life satisfaction decreased from 14.0% in 2021 to 10.2% in 2023.
Almost one in three male (32.1%) respondents and one in four (25.9%) female respondents reported a high satisfaction level with their lives. Female respondents were more likely to report low overall life satisfaction (12.3% compared with 8.0% of male respondents).
In 2023, 17.4% of female respondents felt downhearted or depressed at least sometimes in the four-week period prior to interview, down from 26.3% in 2021. The comparable rate for male respondents was 12.0% in 2023, down from 17.8% in 2021.
Analysis of overall life satisfaction by age shows that in 2023, respondents aged 65 and older were more likely to report high satisfaction with their overall life. More than one in three (35.8%) of this age group reported high overall life satisfaction compared with one in four (26.7%) people aged 25 to 49 years. Older respondents were also more likely to report high overall satisfaction with the financial situation of their households, with the amount of time they have available for enjoyable activities and with their personal relationships. Almost six in ten (58.5%) people aged 65 years and older who described themselves as employed had a high satisfaction level with their job. This was approximately double the rates for people aged 50 to 64 (30.4%) and for people aged 25 to 49 (26.1%).
Employment Status and Job Satisfaction
SILC respondents who described their Principal Economic Status (PES) as ‘unemployed’ or ‘unable to work due to long-standing health problems’ reported much lower rates of overall life satisfaction. More than one in three (35.0%) respondents who were unable to work due to long-standing health problems and one in four (28.6%) unemployed respondents reported low satisfaction with their overall lives. The comparable rate for retirees was 5.6%.
SILC respondents who described themselves as unemployed or unable to work due to long-standing health problems were more likely to have answered ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ when asked ‘To what extent do you agree with the statement ‘I feel left out’?’. Almost one in three (32.4%) unemployed respondents said they felt left out compared with just one in ten (11.6%) respondents who described themselves as retired.
Analysis of job satisfaction levels by employment sector shows that more than four in ten (42.3%) self-employed respondents reported a high satisfaction level with their job. The comparable rate for semi-state employees was 35.4%, 30.7% for public sector employees, and 25.3% for private sector employees. More than one in ten (10.5%) private sector employees reported low satisfaction with their job. The low job satisfaction rate for semi-state employees was 2.7%.
Relationship Status
Survey respondents were asked how often they felt happy in the four-week period prior to their date of interview. More than eight in ten (82.0%) married respondents said they felt happy either always or most of the time during the four-week period. The comparable rate for separated and divorced respondents was approximately six in ten (63.3% and 60.7% respectively). Almost seven in ten (69.6%) respondents who were never married and a similar percentage (72.0%) of widowed respondents said that they felt happy either always or most of the time.
Housing Status
Respondents living in owner-occupied accommodation were more likely to report a high satisfaction level with their overall lives, with one in three (33.4%) of this group reporting high satisfaction compared with less than one in five (18.1%) respondents living in rented accommodation. Almost one in four (23.0%) respondents living in owner-occupied accommodation reported high overall satisfaction with the financial situation of their household. The comparable rate for respondents living in rented accommodation was over three times lower at 7.3%.”