The Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) 2020 was published on 19 May 2022. Since the first publication of 2020 estimates, the CCR has been retrospectively added to the 2018 data. As 2018 and 2020 estimates are now produced using the same methodology, comparisons can be made between them. This publication has been updated on 16 May 2023 and now includes references to 2018 estimates.
The Statistics Act, 1993 provides that the CSO may obtain information from public bodies including the Central Bank. The Central Credit Register (CCR) is a mandatory database of credit information established by the Central Bank, under the Credit Reporting Act 2013 as amended (‘the Act’). Under the Act, lenders are obliged to submit credit information and personal information on loans of €500 or more to the CCR. Commencing in October 2021, in line with Data Protection obligations and principles, the CSO receives CCR data transfers from the Central Bank. These transfers contain the necessary data fields required for the production of some debt related statistical outputs.
The supplementing of survey data with the CCR has increased debt participation by approximately 15 percentage points and is a marked improvement in data quality compared to previous instances of the HFCS. In May of 2023, the estimates of the 2018 HFCS were revised to include data from the CCR. Revised estimates for 2018 can be found in this publication. Debt participation rates as published in this publication should not be compared with rates from the 2013 publication of the survey.
Mortgage on the Household’s Main Residence (HMR)
Three in ten households (30.4%) have a mortgage on the HMR and there is a wide variability by age of the reference person. For example, two out of ten (21.3%) of all households where the reference person is aged less than 35 have a mortgage on the HMR compared to 53.2% of households where the reference person is between 45 and 54. The likelihood of having a mortgage rises with household income, (going from 6.2% for the bottom fifth of income distribution to 62.3% for the top fifth). See Table 4.1.
The median value of the outstanding balance of the mortgage on the HMR is €124,400 but varies from €150,200 in the Eastern & Midlands region to €89,500 in the Northern and western region. See Table 4.2.
Mortgage on Other Real Estate Property
Between 2018 and 2020, there has been a decrease in the share of households with a mortgage on other real estate property (i.e. excluding the HMR). In 2020, 7.2% of households have a mortgage on other property, down from 9.4% in 2018. Households higher up the income distribution are more likely to have a mortgage on other property with 18.6% of households with the top fifth of household income having at least one mortgage, a drop from the 2018 rate of 23.3%. See Figure 4.1 and Table 4.1.
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 20 percentile | 3.6 | 0.7 |
| 20-39 percentile | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| 40-59 percentile | 7.4 | 4.1 |
| 60-79 percentile | 9.7 | 9.8 |
| 80-100 percentile | 23.3 | 18.6 |
Non-mortgage Loans
The percentage of households with non-mortgage loans is 45.5% but households with just one adult and children have a much higher rate of 64.7%, a slight increase on the 2018 rate of 61.0%. See Figure 4.2 and Table 4.1.
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Other households with children aged under 18 | 64.8 | 65.4 |
| 1 adult with children aged under 18 | 61 | 64.7 |
| 3 or more adults | 56.5 | 64.4 |
| 2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18 | 59.8 | 59.8 |
| 2 adults, both aged <65 | 48.1 | 43.3 |
| 1 adult aged <65 | 40.5 | 33.4 |
| 2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+ | 23.9 | 25.7 |
| 1 adult aged 65+ | 20 | 16.9 |
Credit Card Debt
In 2020, 26.8% of all households have credit card debt, a considerable decrease on the 2018 value of 39.8%. This decrease coincides with a rise in savings (see Assets chapter) and may be partly due to spending being somewhat limited during COVID-19 restrictions in the latter half of 2020. Some household types are more likely to have credit card debt with over one in three (36.5%) households with two adults and one to three children under 18 having this debt in 2020, a drop from 53.0% in 2018. This compares to 10.9% of households with one adult aged 65 or over, a drop from 14.2% in 2018. See Figure 4.3 and Table 4.1.
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| 3 or more adults | 51 | 38.1 |
| 2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18 | 53 | 36.5 |
| Other households with children aged under 18 | 49.2 | 33.7 |
| 2 adults, both aged <65 | 48.5 | 26.5 |
| 2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+ | 37.9 | 23.4 |
| 1 adult aged <65 | 25.7 | 20.9 |
| 1 adult with children aged under 18 | 20.6 | 12 |
| 1 adult aged 65+ | 14.2 | 10.9 |
Total Debt
Households with children have the highest rates of debt and are less likely to have seen a decrease in the rate of debt between 2018 and 2020. In 2020, almost nine in ten (87.9%) households with two adults and one to three children under 18 have debt, a slight increase from 88.2% in 2018. This compares with less than three in ten (27.1%) one adult households where the person is aged 65 or over, a decrease from 33.1% in 2018. See Figure 4.4
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 adult aged 65+ | 33.1 | 27.1 |
| 2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+ | 57.6 | 47.4 |
| 1 adult aged <65 | 65.2 | 57.9 |
| 2 adults, both aged <65 | 78.2 | 72.5 |
| 1 adult with children aged under 18 | 75.9 | 73.6 |
| 3 or more adults | 82.2 | 84.4 |
| 2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18 | 88.2 | 87.9 |
| Other households with children aged under 18 | 87.8 | 92.1 |
More than one in twenty (6.4%) households are credit constrained in 2020, down from almost two in twenty (9.7%) in 2018. A credit constrained household is one that was either refused credit, did not receive the full amount requested or did not apply for credit due to perceived refusal in the three years preceding the interview date.
Single adult households with children are the type of household most likely to be credit constrained with a rate of 15.4% in 2020, down from 23.0% in 2018. In 2020, more than six in ten (62.0%) of these households applied for credit in the three-year period preceding their interview date and, of these, more than one in ten (12.7%) were either refused or didn’t get the full amount requested. Almost one in ten (9.4%) single adult households with children considered applying for a loan at some time in the three-year period but then decided not to, thinking that the application would be rejected. See Figure 4.5 and Table 4.3.
| X-axis label | 2018 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 adult aged 65+ | 3 | 1.2 |
| 2 adults, at least 1 aged 65+ | 3.3 | 2 |
| 3 or more adults | 6.2 | 5.4 |
| 2 adults, both aged <65 | 11.9 | 5.7 |
| 1 adult aged <65 | 11.3 | 8.1 |
| 2 adults with 1-3 children aged under 18 | 12 | 8.9 |
| Other households with children aged under 18 | 12.7 | 9.1 |
| 1 adult with children aged under 18 | 23 | 15.4 |
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