Donegal people have lowest disposable income
Workers in Donegal have the lowest disposable income in the Republic of Ireland, new figures from the Central Statistics Office have once again shown.
Disposable income is classed as gross income less total tax, social insurance contributions, pension contributions and inter-household transfers paid.
The CSO has revealed that County Donegal recorded the lowest disposable income per person in the State during the year 2020 at €18,322, which is 22 per cent below the national average of €23,471.
That means that workers here are more than €5,000 worse off per year than the average worker across the country – and, when it comes to Dublin, we are almost €10,000 behind salaries in the capital.
Unsurprisingly, Dublin continues to have the highest disposable income per person in the state, followed by Limerick and Cork.
Dublin’s disposable income per person stood at €27,686 in 2020, which was 18 per cent higher than the nationwide average, and up by 2.3 per cent from 2019.
The next county with the highest amount of disposable income per person was Limerick at €26,248 per person, followed by Cork at €23,856. Dublin and Cork, as well as surrounding counties, benefit largely from the presence of key economic sectors, for example, the information and communication sectors in Dublin and the industry sector in Cork.
After Donegal, the county with the second lowest disposable income per person was Longford at €18,754, followed by Laois at €18,842.
The Border and Midlands counties consistently remain significantly below the state average for household disposable income and are largely dependent on the Public Administration sector to generate wealth and employment in their respective regions.
Over a third of workers in Dublin
Meanwhile, the data shows that more than a third (35 per cent) of all persons employed in the State work in Dublin city and county, followed by Cork city and county, which account for 12 per cent of all persons employed in the Republic.
The highest proportion of workers reside in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick in that order.
Some 2.72 per cent of the Republic’s workforce [including this reporter] currently live in County Donegal.
The latest figures show that the gap between the lowest and highest county income per capita has widened considerably and is now at €9,364, a 10 percent increase from a figure of €8,505 in 2019.
That disparity is ever-widening too.
The CSO report reveals how since 2004, the Border, West and Midland regions have never reported a per capita disposable income greater than the State average.
On the other hand however, Dublin’s per capita income has consistently remained significantly above the State average.
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