The average Irish person earns €514.84 a week, and spends a fifth of their income on services like foreign holidays, entertainment and meals out, the CSO 2004 Yearbook shows.
The 450-page document gives a snapshot of Irish lifestyles today, showing Ford to be the most popular make of car among Irish people last year, and Séan and Emma the most popular names for babies.
Ireland's obsession with property is underlined by a continuing rise in house prices. More than a quarter of first-time buyers last year agreed to monthly mortgage repayments in excess of €600, while a further 28 per cent had repayments of over €400.
More than 75 per cent of all private dwellings in the State were owner-occupied in 2003. Yet the average size of households is down, from 4.48 people on average in 1926 to 2.94 people in 2002.
The number of private cars has almost doubled in the Republic over the past 20 years to 1.4 million in 2002.
In a further sign of affluence, Irish residents took almost five million international trips last year, an increase of 1.2 million on 2000. The bulk of the rise was accounted for by foreign holidays.
As for family structures, more births than before take place outside of marriage (31.4 per cent in 2003). At the same time there were 20,300 marriages last year, the highest figure for 21 years.
While the majority of marriages are celebrated according to Roman Catholic rites, the share of civil marriages has increased as a proportion of the total from 0.5 per cent in 1970 to 5.7 per cent in 1996.
The number of divorces granted has increased year on year, with the exception of 2002, since the introduction of the Divorce Act, 1996. Last year there were 2,970 divorces.
The suicide rate has also increased steadily in recent years to a peak of 13.5 suicides per 100,000 people in 2001. Last year, the rate stood at 11.2 suicides per 100,000 people.
Irish people are most likely to die from diseases of the circulatory system, followed by cancer and respiratory diseases.
On employment, people are more likely to work in services than ever before, with the sector accounting for 65 per cent of employment last year compared to 45 per cent in 1973.
The number of people in third-level education has increased five-fold over the past 30 years to 129,283 in 2002/2003.
Such progress has not been evenly spread between genders, however, with 73 per cent of women in full-time education at age 18 last year compared to 57 per cent of men.
Women dominate in a different sense in primary education, where just 18 per cent of teachers are men.
