County Incomes and Regional GDP 2020

Introduction

Household income data were first published in 2000 and the publication included a detailed description of the methodology used to estimate the regional values of the income components. Since then, results have been issued on an annual basis. Regional accounts were first published in 1996, they were in respect of 1991 and a full description of the methodology used was included. A further set of accounts in respect of 1993 was published in 1997 with some additional methodological details. Results have been published annually since.

Revisions to national accounts data as published in National Income and Expenditure 2021, have been carried through into these tables, as is the usual practice.

NACE

Tables 5.15 and 5.15a provide GVA for the regions broken down into three main sectors of the economy. In former releases these sectors were defined as in the publication ‘National Income and Expenditure 20yy’ (NIE 20yy) and corresponded with the national classification system of industries used in National Accounts at the time. Since the 2009 regional release (consistent with NIE 2010) the sectors have been revised to correspond with the NACE Rev.2 classification system. The main effect of the NACE Rev.2 (re)classification, on the three sectors delineated in tables 5.15 and 5.15a, is that the Publishing Industry (including the publishing of software) has been reclassified from the Manufacturing sector to the Services sector. This results in the Services sector accounting for a larger proportion of total GVA compared to former releases. Similarly, the Manufacturing sector accounts for a smaller proportion of GVA than in former releases.

The more significant aggregates in all tables in these accounts (e.g. gross value added, compensation of employees) are compiled internally according to the NACE classification system. Again, the NACE Rev.2 system has been used compared to the NACE Rev.1 system in earlier releases. The retrospective data for the years 2003 to 2011 have also been recalculated using NACE Rev.2. This inevitably gives rise to some revisions to the retrospective series.

A10 NACE Sectors
Sector			NACE codes
Agriculture, forestry and fishing			Section A
Industry (excluding Construction)			Sections B,C,D,E
Of which: Manufacturing			Section C
Construction			Section F
Distribution, transport, hotels and restaurants			Sections G,H,I
Information and communication			Section J
Financial and insurance activities			Section K
Real estate activities			Section L
Professional, admin and support services			Sections M,N
Public admin, education and health			Sections O,P,Q
Arts, entertainment and other services			Sections R,S,T

Disposable Household Income

Is calculated in three steps:

Primary Income

Household Primary Income is defined for National Income purposes as follows:

Compensation of employees (i.e. Wages and Salaries, Benefits in kind, Employers’ social insurance contributions)

plus

Income of self-employed

plus

Rent of dwellings (including imputed rent of owner-occupied dwellings)

plus

Net interest and dividends

The last component is a net item, which implies that interest payments by households are deducted in deriving primary income.

Total Income

Total income is defined as:

Primary income from above

plus

Social benefits

plus

Other current transfers

Disposable Income

Disposable income is defined as follows:

Total income

minus

Current taxes on income (e.g. Income taxes, other current taxes)

minus

Social insurance contributions (e.g. Employers, employees’, self-employed, etc.)

National Income

The estimates for the State of the different components of household income have already been published in the National Income and Expenditure Report 2020 (NIE 2020). The Other Current Transfer Payments to and from households are included in this household income report on a net basis with Social Benefits.

In the NIE the Savings and Investment Tables (tables 5.9 to 5.12) have been redesigned to align them with European System of Accounts (ESA 2010) definitions. Most items in the previous tables 5.9 to 5.12 are found in similar positions in the new tables. Some items have been replaced by conceptually similar statistics that are aligned to ESA definitions.

For more information on the changes please see Annual National Accounts 2021

ANA 2021
Item	2020 Value €M	Source (ANA 2021)
Primary Income
Remuneration of Employees	101,011	Items 45, 46 & 47 Table 12
Income of Self-Employed	12,061	Item 48 Table 12
Rent of Private Property Dwellings (incl. imputed rent)	11,529	Item 49 Table 12
Net Interest and Dividends	3,764	Items 50, 51,52 & 53 Table 12
Total Primary Income of Households	128,364	Item 54 Table 12
Social Benefits and net current transfers	35,731	Items 4 & 5 Table 9
Total Income of Households	164,094
Taxes on Personal Income and Wealth	47,322	Items 2 & 3 Table 9
Total Disposable Income of Households	166,773	Item 6 Table 9

Per Capita Incomes

The CSO publishes population estimates annually at regional level but not at county level. County populations for 2003 to 2016 used in this report have been estimated by applying the year to year changes at regional level, following the Censuses of 2006,  2011 and 2016,  to the counties within these regions and are consistent with the national population estimates submitted to Eurostat.

Statistical Discrepancy

The official level of GDP is taken to be the average of the independently compiled Income and Expenditure estimates. The resulting balancing item, which is half of the difference between the two estimates, is called the Statistical Discrepancy.

GDP by Region

Gross Value Added

Gross Value Added (GVA) at basic prices is a measure of the value of the final goods and services produced in a region (less the materials and services used which come from outside the region) priced at the value which the producers received minus any taxes payable and plus any subsidies receivable as a consequence of their production or sale. GVA differs from household income in three main respects.

• Firstly, GVA includes the total profits of companies. Company profits arising in the State, which accrue to non-residents, are considerable.
• Secondly, the workforce that produces the GVA in a region may not live there and may bring their incomes home to a neighbouring region in which they will be included in household incomes.
• Thirdly, personal income includes items such as social welfare benefits and factor incomes from abroad, which are not included in GVA.

(Note: GDP and GVA are the same concept i.e. they measure the value of the goods and services (or part thereof) which are produced within a region or country. GDP is valued at market prices and hence includes taxes charged and excludes the value of subsidies provided. GVA at basic prices on the other hand excludes product taxes and includes product subsidies – see table 5.14).

Valuation

Value added is firstly calculated at factor cost, which includes all subsidies and excludes all taxes. Conversion to a valuation at basic prices is achieved by subtracting overhead subsidies and adding overhead taxes. Conversion to market prices is then obtained by subtracting product subsidies and adding product taxes (see table 5.14). Most of the tables in this report on GVA are based on GVA at basic prices. However table 5.15a is based on GVA at factor cost. All the results in this release are based on the ESA 2010 system of accounts which came into effect in 2014 and is now in use throughout the European Union. 

EU Averages

The indices of GVA per person, in relation to the EU28=100, for years 2008 to 2021 shown in table 5.11 are based on the relevant position of Ireland as given on the Eurostat website.

Regions

The regional classifications in this release are based on the NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units) classification used by Eurostat. The regions for which the accounts have been compiled are the eight Regional Authority NUTS3 regions. The Mid East region (Kildare, Meath and Wicklow) and the Dublin region are affected by a substantial proportion of their workforce living in one region and commuting to work in another. It is therefore more meaningful to combine these two regions. The definition of the regions is outlined below. Figures have also been shown for the three overall NUTS2 regions i.e. “Northern and Western” region, “Southern” region and "Eastern and Midland" region.

NUTS 2016

From (Regional 2016 release) onwards, the new NUTS 2016 classification has been implemented as required under EU directive and the previous NUTS classification (NUTS 2013) will no longer be valid.

Northern & Western NUTS2 Region		Southern NUTS2 Region		Eastern & Midland NUTS2 Region
Border	Cavan Donegal Leitrim Monaghan Sligo	Mid-West	Clare Limerick Tipperary	Dublin	Dublin City Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown Fingal South Dublin
		South-East	Carlow Kilkenny Waterford Wexford	Mid-East	Kildare Louth Meath Wicklow
West	Galway Mayo Roscommon	South-West	Cork Kerry	Midland	Laois Longford Offaly Westmeath

For more information on National Accounts definitions please refer to the Statistics Explained section of our website.