This release is categorised as a CSO Frontier Series Output. Particular care must be taken when interpreting the statistics in this release as it may use new methods which are under development and/or data sources which may be incomplete, for example, new administrative data sources. For further information on the data sources, linking procedures and limitations of this report, see the Background Notes.
The results presented in this release are based primarily on a data-linking exercise of two pseudonymised Central Statistics Office data sources:
With additional insights included by data-linking with two additional pseudonymised data sources:
The linkage and analysis was undertaken by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for statistical purposes in line with the Statistics Act, 1993 and the CSO Data Protocol.
Before using personal administrative data for statistical purposes, the CSO removes all identifying personal information. This includes the Personal Public Service Number (PPSN), a unique number used by people in Ireland to access social welfare benefits, personal taxation, and other public services. A pseudonymised Protected Identifier Key (PIK) is created by the CSO when the PPSN is removed. This PIK is unique and non-identifiable and is only used by the CSO.
Using the PIK enables the CSO to link and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data. All records in the matched datasets are pseudonymised and the results are in the form of statistical aggregates which do not identify any individuals. For further information see Administrative Data FAQ.
The PIR is a pseudonymised income register held internally within the CSO. It contains information on income received by individuals relating to employment, self-employment, and social transfers. It is derived from administrative holdings held by the Revenue Commissioners and Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Therefore, the PIR provides a near complete picture on individual level income, for a calendar year.
The COPA is a pseudonymised copy of the Census of Population 2022 dataset held internally within the CSO for analysis purposes. It contains Census attribute information for individuals and households of which 95% of records have a PIK which allows them to be linked to pseudonymised administrative data sources to create new analysis.
Student Universal Support Ireland contains funding information for all higher and further education grants. SUSI offers funding to eligible students in approved full-time, third-level education in Ireland and also, in some cases, funding for students studying outside the State. It offers support to all types of students, from school leavers to mature students returning to education.
The ITForm11 contains the annual income tax returns of the self-employed. Data for a calendar year is only complete three years after the reference year, because of the nature of self-assessment, although the majority of records are available about 14 months after the reference year. The ITForm11 was linked to for rental income.
The CSO’s IPEADS 2022 features demographic estimates that are based on administrative records. It is important to note that such administrative records are designed for the operational needs of Irish public bodies and not as statistical data sources.
All income data referenced in the publication spans the period from 01 January 2022 to 31 December 2022.
The geographic and demographic variables were collected on Census reference day, 03 April 2022.
A private household comprises either one person living alone or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address with common housekeeping arrangements - that is, sharing at least one meal a day or sharing a living room or sitting room. In order to be included in the household, a person had to be a usual resident at the time of the Census. Therefore, visitors to the household on Census Night were excluded.
Usual residents who were enumerated outside of their place of usual residence, were as far as possible moved back to their place of usual residence. Enumerated persons that could not be matched to a place of usual residence were excluded. Persons usually resident in communal establishments are out of scope. Persons absent abroad on Census night are excluded, as are households that were fully absent on Census night. Private households of individuals where the place of work was identified as outside of the Republic of Ireland were excluded from any analysis.
From an initial population of 5,084,879 persons usually resident in Ireland and present on Census night, a total of 161,519 persons are excluded from analysis in the Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland (GPII), resulting in a target population for the GPII of 4,923,360 persons.
The number of private dwellings recorded on Census night, including permanent and non-permanent dwelling units as well as temporarily absent households, was 1,875,946. Excluding persons as listed above leaves a target household population for the GPII of 1,824,262 dwellings.
The COPA2022 dataset records where persons were enumerated on Census night. This may not have been their place of usual residence. For the purpose of household income statistics in the GPII, persons not enumerated in their place of usual residence were moved back to their home as far as possible. It was not possible to re-locate all such persons. A combination of the Eircode PIK of the usual residence provided on the Census form and the Irish Population Estimates from Administrative Data Sources, 2022 dataset were used to return persons enumerated elsewhere to their place of usual residence. Those that could not be linked to a place of usual residence were excluded from analysis. Households fully occupied by persons that indicate their usual residence is elsewhere, are thus dropped and the residents moved to their place of usual residence where possible.
Persons who indicated that they worked outside of Ireland and had employment income on Irish administrative data totalling less than €10,000 were excluded from analysis, along with their household, as the household income records were deemed incomplete.
Persons not present in the state and enumerated on Census night are excluded from analysis.
These exclusions led to the removal of 51,684 households from the GPII dataset. The largest concentration of these was in border areas. Particular care should be taken with border area estimates, as illustrated in Table 4.1, where 27 of the 30 electoral divisions with the most dropped households were in Donegal, Monaghan, or Cavan. Also, after removing these households, many of these households were not matched to administrative income sources. Areas with high student populations are also liable to having a lower percentage of households matched with administrative income.
There are records on the COPA2022 dataset which do not have a PIK and thus cannot be linked with administrative income. For the target population of the GPII, the PIK coverage for persons aged 15+ was 95.2%.
At the household level, 4.8% of households in the GPII dataset were not matched to administrative income. The reasons for not being matched include: records which do not have a PIK on the COPA2022 and thus cannot be linked to administrative income; households with income sources not covered by the GPII gross income definition; or households subsisting on savings or interhousehold transfers such as students.
There were records in the PIR that could not be linked to COPA2022. The reasons for not being recorded on the COPA2022 include: absent persons identified in Census; persons living abroad but working or paid for work in Ireland; and persons who arrived in Ireland after or left Ireland before the 03 April 2022. This "missing" gross income came to a total €20.4 billion for 2022. This figure also includes income related to records which do not have a PIK on the COPA2022 dataset.
The annual gross income before deductions such as tax and social insurance which was measured in nominal terms and includes:
Excluded from the income measure are:
Income outputs are produced at household level. Households were identified using information gathered in Census 2022.
Income tax, Universal Social Charge (USC) and social insurance contributions were estimated and summed to household level and subtracted from the household gross income to calculate the annual household net income. The components of household net income are household gross income less:
Total annual payments from the Department of Social Protection (unless otherwise stated), categorised into the following:
Individuals and households who were identified as living in Ireland in the COPA but could not be linked to administrative income data in the PIR in 2022.
Households with no administrative income are excluded from estimates of means and median household income. The only tabulations in this publication where they included are in the distribution of household income graph and associated tables.
For the calculation of mean and median household income, households with no administrative income are excluded.
Mean: Sum of all household income, divided by the number of households with administrative income. e.g. The mean of the following four household incomes {€0, €18,000, €45,000, €70,000} is, after dropping the household with no administrative income, (18,000+45,000+70,000)/3 = €44,333.
Median: midpoint of the ordered values, after removing households with no administrative income. e.g. The following four household incomes {€0, €18,000, €45,000, €70,000}, after dropping the household with no administrative income, becomes {€18,000, €45,000, €70,000}. The median of which is €45,000.
The GPII 2022 is not directly comparable to the 2016 publication due to methodological changes. The primary change is that the 2016 GPII was based on where persons were enumerated on Census night, whereas the 2022 GPII persons enumerated outside of their usual residence were returned to their place of usual residence as much as possible. Also the 2022 GPII includes income from HAP, which the 2016 edition did not.
SILC is the official source of household income and at risk of poverty statistics in Ireland. However, SILC is a sample survey is a sample survey and cannot go into the level of geographic detail that the GPII can. The calculation of household income is not comparable between the two as the methodologies differ significantly. The GPII is limited to the use of administrative income in the calculation of gross, while SILC includes additional components such as:
Administrative Counties correspond with the Local Authorities, covering 31 city and county councils. For example, Cork County refers to the region administered by Cork County Council.
In census reports, the country is divided into 26 counties/administrative counties and the five cities. Outside Dublin, there are 23 administrative counties and four cities: Cork, Limerick, Waterford, and Galway. In Dublin, the four local authority areas are identified separately: Dublin City and the three administrative counties of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin. For further information, see CSO Geographical classifications - national level.
For Census 2022, the Central Statistics Office introduced a new way of defining urban areas, Built Up Areas (BUAs). Where the word 'town' is used in this release, it is referring to the BUAs with a population of least 1,500 persons. For more information about BUAs, please see Census 2022 Urban Settlement Boundaries and Built Up Areas.
For the purposes of Local Authority elections, each county and city is divided into Local Electoral Areas (LEAs) which are constituted on the basis of Orders made under the Local Government Act, 1941. Statutory Instruments 610-638 of 2018 and 6-8, 27-28, 156-157 of 2019 state the current composition of LEAs and their subsequent amalgamation into Municipal Districts.
In general, LEAs are formed by aggregating Electoral Divisions. However, in a number of cases, Electoral Divisions are split between LEAs and in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some LEA boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. As a result of these amendments, Census 2022 LEAs are comprised of whole Census 2022 Electoral Divisions.
Electoral Divisions are the smallest legally defined administrative areas in the State. There are 3,441 legally defined EDs in the State. However, in order to render them suitable for production of statistics, the CSO has amended some ED boundaries to ensure that statistical disclosure does not occur. This has had the effect of amalgamating some EDs and splitting others. The amending of the Cork City and Cork County boundaries necessitated a redrawing of Electoral Division boundaries within Cork to ensure all EDs in the county were suitable for production of statistical data. For Census 2022, the CSO is publishing data for 3,420 Electoral Divisions.
For further information see Census 2022 Small Area Population Statistics.
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