Dublin incomes nearly 15% higher than national average

Disposable incomes in Dublin are now nearly 15 per cent higher than the national average, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

They show that in 2015 the Dublin region had the highest average disposable income per person of €23,298.

This was 14.5 per cent higher than the State average of €20,334 and 32 per cent higher than the Border region, which had the lowest per capita disposable income of €17,641 of any region.

Of the remaining regions, only the midwest at €20,353 and the mideast at €20,441 had an average disposable income on a par with the State average of €20,334.

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The southeast and the southwest regions had per capita disposable incomes of €19,503 and €19,774 respectively while the midland region with €17,846 was the second lowest at approximately 12.2 per cent below the State average.

The figures underscore the uneven concentration of economic activity and wealth across the State.

Significantly, the divergence in income between the regions and Dublin was at its lowest in 2010 at the height of the financial crisis but has widened each year since then.

Disposable incomes

The lowest difference between maximum and minimum per capita disposable incomes was €1,017 between the midwest and Dublin in 2011 while the largest difference was €5,656 between the Border region and Dublin in 2015.

While the CSO cautioned that county-by-county analyses involved "uncertainty" the figures show Dublin, Limerick and Kildare were the only counties where per capita disposable income exceeded the State average in 2015 with Meath, Wicklow, Waterford and Cork just below.

The counties with the lowest incomes were Donegal (€15,705), Roscommon (€16,582), Offaly (€17,242) and Kerry (€17,908).

The CSO also noted that some counties in the west and Border region had never had per capita disposable income greater than the State average during the entire period 2004 to 2015.

In contrast, the figures show Dublin was the only region with consistently higher per capita disposable incomes than the State average during the 2006-2015 period.

The figures come in the wake of a recent report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), which that Ireland’s economy was increasingly being sucked into Dublin at the expense of other regions.