Tenure and Households in Ireland 2016-2019

Income and living conditions

The CSO's Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is a household survey covering a broad range of issues in relation to income and living conditions in Ireland. It is the official source of data on household and individual income and provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as the at risk of poverty rate and the consistent poverty rate.

This new CSO report, ‘Tenure and Households in Ireland, 2016-2019’, examines some results from the 2017 and 2018 EU-SILC by tenure and dwelling type. The SILC survey uses an alternative categorisation of household composition, which is not comparable to family unit type as presented in this publication. Therefore, this chapter will focus on tenure type and dwelling type.

The nominal median value for equivalised disposable income on an annual basis was €22,872 in 2018, an increase of 9.6% from the 2017 value of €20,869. See Table 4.1.

People who 'own with a mortgage or a loan' had the highest median income of €27,082 in 2018, while those who 'rented from a local authority' had the lowest at €14,612. See Table 4.1.

The highest median income by dwelling type in 2018 was among those in a 'detached house' at €24,055. The lowest was for those in a 'semi-detached house', at €21,515. See Table 4.2.

Rented occupancies and Terraced Houses have highest deprivation indicators

People who 'rented from a local authority' had the highest at risk of poverty rate in 2018 of 41.7% and the highest deprivation rate of 39.6%. See Table 4.4.

By dwelling type, the highest at risk of poverty rate was 16.4% for those in a 'semi-detached house', while the highest deprivation rate was for those in a 'terraced house' at 19.8%. See Table 4.6.

Highest income in tenures 'own with a mortgage or a loan' and 'detached house'

Now looking at average weekly income by households in 2018, the nominal average weekly total direct income in the State was €1,048.35. By tenure type, the highest household direct income was in ‘own with a mortgage or a loan’ at €1,881.73 and the lowest was in households ‘rented from a local authority’ at €251.50.

Weekly household total social transfers were highest in tenures ‘rented from a local authority’ at €353.70, followed by ‘owned outright’ at €349.20, while the State average was €264.13. The lowest transfers were in tenures that ‘own with a mortgage or a loan’ at €136.75.

Households that ‘own with a mortgage or a loan’ had the highest weekly gross income at €2,018.48, as well as the highest total tax and social contributions, and highest net disposable income, at €617.08 and €1,401.40 respectively.

However, tenures ‘rented from a local authority’ had the lowest weekly gross income at €605.19, the lowest total tax and social contributions at €43.60, and the lowest net disposable income at €561.59.

Table 4.8 presents a full breakdown of these figures and the equivalised weekly income per person as well. Table 4.7 presents the equivalent figures for the year 2017.

In 2018 the highest nominal average weekly total direct income by dwelling type was for households classified as a ‘detached house’ at €1,114.50 while households in ‘apartment/flat/bedsit/other’ had the lowest at €921.30. Average total direct income for the State was €1,048.35.

Similarly, average weekly household total social transfers were highest in a ‘detached house’ at €285.75 and lowest in the category ‘apartment/flat/bedsit/other’ at €187.57, compared to the State average of €264.13.

Dwelling type ‘detached house’ had the highest weekly gross income at €1,400.25, the highest total tax and social contributions at €362.46 and the highest net disposable income at €1,037.79.

Households living in an ‘apartment/flat/bedsit/other’ had the lowest average weekly gross income at €1,108.88, as well as the lowest total tax and social contributions at €277.89, and the lowest net disposable income at €830.99.

Households living in a ‘semi-detached house’ had an average weekly net disposable income of €1,008.97 while households in a ‘terraced house’ had recorded an average of €925.03.

Table 4.10 presents a full breakdown of these figures and the equivalised weekly income per person, while Table 4.9 presents the equivalent figures for the year 2017.

Just over one in ten permanent private households received a majority of their income from social welfare working-age income supports.

This section examines the integration of the 2016 Census of Population with administrative data to analyse income in private permanent dwellings. For more information, see the CSO report Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland 2016.

More than half the household income in Ireland came from working-age social welfare for 13.0% of households in 2016.

Over two-fifths (44.1%) of households who 'rented from a local authority' had more than half of their income from working-age social welfare, compared with about a fifth (19.1%) of households who 'rent from a landlord'. Less than 10% of households which were owned (outright or with a mortgage or a loan) had more than half of their income from working-age social welfare. See Table 4.11.

Looking at dwelling type, the category 'terraced house' had the highest proportion of households where working age social welfare was majority of income, at 17.7%, followed by ‘apartment/flat/bedsit/other’ at 17.1%.

While 41.2% of households in Ireland lived in a ‘detached house’ in 2016, only 9.1% (and also the lowest proportion among dwelling types) of these had more than half of their income from working age social welfare. Note that a household where over half of its gross income came from working age social welfare (excluding child benefits and state pension) was considered majority of income.