Offaly incomes are country's second lowest

Disposable incomes in Offaly are the second lowest in the state – and almost €5,000 below the national average, figures released this week by the Central Statistics Office reveal.

The County Incomes and Regional GDP figures for 2018 show that the average disposable income per person across the state was €21,270 – but Offaly’s per person average was just €16,907.

Not just that but the midlands region – comprising Offaly, Westmeath Laois and Longford - actually suffered a fall in income between 2017 and 2018, while incomes rose in the seven other regions across the state.

The gap between Offaly and the other midland counties was in itself significant.

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Laois, with the third lowest disposable income in the state, was almost €400 ahead of Offaly, with an average of €17,302. Longford – fourth lowest in the state registered an average of €17,410, and Westmeath’s per person average was €17,889.

The average income in the four midland counties, at €17,389, was down by 2.4 per cent on the 2017 figure of €17,809.

The county that had the lowest average disposable income per person was Donegal, for which the figure was €16,490.

The statistics showed that Dublin city and county had the highest average disposable income per person in 2018. At €24,969 it was 17.4% higher than the state average of €21,270 and approximately 5.7% higher than the 2017 figure of €23,621.

Of the remaining seven regions in 2018, only the Mid East at €21,982 (3.5% increase on the 2017 figure of €21,243) and the Mid West at €21,035 (2% increase on the 2017 figure of €20,626) had an average disposable income per person on a par with the state average of €21,270.

The Border region with €17,391 (1.2% increase on the 2017 figure of €17,192) and the Midland region with €17,389 (2.4% decrease on the 2017 figure of €17,809) were joint lowest in 2018 at 18.2% below the state average of €21,270. In 2017 both regions were 16.5% and 13.5% respectively below the state average of €20,578.

The gap between the maximum and minimum value of per capita disposable income, on a regional basis, increased from €6,430 in 2017 to €7,578 in 2018, due to Dublin regional incomes increasing by €1,348 (5.7%) while those of the lowest region, Border, increased by only €199 (1.2%).

Incomes in the Midland region dropped by €420 between 2017 and 2018 to give almost the same value of €17,389 as that for the Border region in 2018. See Table 3.

Dublin continues to remain the only region with higher per capita disposable income than the state average during the entire 2009-2018 period while the Border and West regions continue to earn significantly less than the state average. In contrast, the Mid West and the Mid East regions showed incomes on a par with the state average during the same period.

According to the CSO, while the county figures involve uncertainty, they do provide a useful indication of the degree of variability at county level. Dublin, Kildare, Limerick, Wicklow, Meath and Cork, in that order, are the only counties where per capita disposable income exceeded the state average in 2018.

At the other end of the spectrum, some counties have never had per capita disposable income greater than the state average during the entire period 2004 to 2018.