The Commuters chapter was updated on 11/10/19 to clarify the defintion of commuters used in the analysis and to advise of additional tables, which allow detailed analysis of earned income of all commuters by County, Commuting Time, Means of travel and statistic, having been made available in statbank.
In this chapter, unless otherwise specified, the term commuter refers to those who commute away from home to work, and excludes those who work from home. To enable comparison between commuters it is also limited to those who have worked more than 40 weeks in the year as per P35 data.
The median earned income was €32,004 for commuters travelling 'Less than 30 minutes' compared to €41,495 for commuters travelling 'Greater than 30 minutes' in 2016, see Figure 7.1, a difference of €9,491. The median earned income for all commuters in Ireland in 2016 was €34,579.
Note that earned income in this chapter includes gross income from employment and self-employment only and was not adjusted for hours worked, see Background and Methodology for further details.
| Travel time | Less than 30 minutes | Greater than 30 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Median earned income | 32004 | 41495 |
Commuters who travelled 'Greater than 30 minutes' to Dublin had a median earned income of €43,727, compared to commuters travelling 'Greater than 30 minutes' to other cities (€38,592) and to the rest of Ireland (€39,913), see Figure 7.2.
The difference in earnings between travelling 'Less than 30 minutes' (€29,503) and 'Greater than 30 minutes' (€39,913) was highest for commuters travelling to the rest of Ireland, which was over €9,000.
| Travel time | Less than 30 minutes | Greater than 30 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| To Dublin | 36726 | 43727 |
| To other cities | 33840 | 38591.5 |
| To rest of Ireland | 29503 | 38913 |
Median earned income and the difference between median earned incomes by travel time tended to be higher with age in 2016, see Figure 7.3.
The difference between earnings for commuters aged between '40-49' travelling 'Less than 30 minutes' (€35,471) and 'Greater than 30 minutes' (€49,265) was over €13,000, compared to less than €500 for commuters aged '<20'.
| Age group | Less than 30 minutes | Greater than 30 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| <20 | 15158 | 15568.5 |
| 20 - 29 | 24613 | 28708 |
| 30 - 39 | 33349.5 | 42136 |
| 40 - 49 | 35471 | 49265 |
| 50 - 59 | 35258 | 47795 |
| 60 - 69 | 30744 | 40580 |
Commuters in the Industry sectors who travelled 'Greater than 30 minutes' had the highest median earned income at €49,428 in 2016, see Figure 7.4.
The difference between earnings for commuters travelling 'Less than 30 minutes' (€36,661) and 'Greater than 30 minutes' (€49,428) was highest for Industry also, at nearly €13,000, compared with the difference in earnings for commuters within the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sectors, which was around €5,000.
| Sectors | Less than 30 minutes | Greater than 30 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (A) | 23972 | 28881.5 |
| Industry (B,C,D,E) | 36661 | 49428 |
| Construction (F) | 31449 | 37768 |
| Wholesale, Transport and Accomodation (G,H,I) | 24172 | 32171 |
| ICT, Scientific and Recreation (J,M,R) | 38698 | 47735 |
| Financial,Real Estate, Administrative & Services (K,L,N,S) | 29272.5 | 39418 |
| Public Service, Education and Health (O,P,Q) | 38135 | 43874 |
Map 7.1 and Table 7.1 detail earned income for all commuters, with no limit on weeks worked, here the difference in median earnings by travel time of commuters who travelled from Wicklow was €14,805 in 2016, the highest in the country, followed by Louth (€13,407) and Westmeath (€13,261) in 2016, see Map 7.1. Cork City commuters saw no difference in median earnings based on travel time, while there was a difference of €1,532 for commuters from Dublin City and €3,223 for commuters from South Dublin.
Further breakdown by Electoral Division of residence is provided in Map 7.2, where there were more than 10 commuters in an Electoral Division in 2016.
Commuters on motor cycles or scooters travelling to Dublin had the highest median value for earned income in 2016 of €47,689. The next highest median values were for commuters travelling to Dublin on bikes (€44,812) and train, dart or luas passengers (€44,676), see Figure 7.5.
The lowest median values for earned income were €29,200 for commuters travelling to Dublin who were car passengers and €31,898 for those travelling to Dublin by bus, minibus or coach.
| Means of travel | Median earned income |
|---|---|
| Motor cycle or scooter | 47689 |
| Bicycle | 44811.5 |
| Train, DART or Luas | 44676 |
| Driving a car | 42634 |
| Other, including lorry or van | 37115 |
| On foot | 32552 |
| Bus, minibus or coach | 31898 |
| Passenger in a car | 29200 |
Additional tables, which allow further detailed analysis of earned income of all commuters by County, Commuting Time, Means of travel and statistic, are available in statbank.
These table are
IIA17 : Earned Income by County, Broad Commuting Time and Statistic
IIA18 : Earned Income by County, Means of Travel, Detailed Commuting Time and Statistic
Link to interactive tables: PxStat
Go to next chapter: Background and Methodology
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