The people with the least amount of “disposable” income in the state live in Co. Donegal, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
New figures published today by the CSO (Thursday, February 16) show that Co. Donegal had the lowest disposable income per person at €18,322.
This is in contrast to Dublin, where disposable income per person sat comfortably at €27,686 – a significant €9,364 higher than the amount that people had in their pockets in Co. Donegal.
After Dublin, Limerick was the second wealthiest county with disposable income per person coming in at €26,248 per person, followed by Cork, with €23,856 per person
According to the latest CSO county calculations – which are for the year 2020 – the disposable income figures are based on estimates and involve a degree of uncertainty.
The figures suggest that Dublin city and county is the only region where disposable income per person is significantly above the state average.
But at the opposite end of the scale as Aoife Crowe, a statistician with the CSO, highlighted disposable income per person in Co. Donegal was estimated to be in the region of at least 22% below the state average.
Although Donegal was bottom of the table when it came to disposable income per person Crowe said that the border and midlands counties also “consistently remain significantly below the state average for household disposable income”.
Crowe said both areas are “largely dependent on the public administration sector to generate wealth and employment in their respective regions”.
Although the midlands have seen an 10.6% increase in average income per person to €17,243 from 2019, the latest CSO figures show.
The CSO estimated that total disposable income in Dublin city and county rose to €39 billion in 2020 while counties Cork and Kerry had in the region of €16.7 billion in disposable income.
However the midlands had the lowest total income in 2020 and has according to the CSO “consistently remained the poorest region in the state”, followed by the border region.