Homeowners in Ireland have a net worth 57 times higher than those who are renting, according to the latest figures.
The average owner-occupied household has a net worth of €303,900 in comparison with €5,300 for those who are renting or those who pay no rent at all.
The wealthiest 10 per cent of all households had a net wealth value greater than €788,400 while households in the bottom 10 per cent of the net wealth distribution had a net wealth value less than €600.
The wellbeing survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for 2023 shows non-homeowners have an at risk of poverty rate of 42.1 per cent compared to 7.2 per cent for those who are owner-occupiers. This is despite the fact that the overall risk of poverty rate fell from 22 per cent in 2022 to 18 per cent in 2023.
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The number of single parent families who are worried about making ends meet increased from 9.7 per cent in 2022 to 17.9 per cent in 2023.
This compared with 5.8 per cent for households with two adults and one to three children aged under 18 years.
Overall Irish people reported improving levels of overall life satisfaction which increased from 24.4 per cent in 2022 to 28.9 per cent in 2023.
The highest rates of life satisfaction are among those aged 65 or over where 35.8 per cent say there are content with their lot. Just over 30 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds say they are happy, but those between 25 and 64 are the least happy with just 26.7 per cent reporting that they are satisfied with their lives.
A greater proportion of men (32.1 per cent) reported high levels of overall life satisfaction when compared with women (25.9 per cent).
Mean weekly earnings increased by 24 per cent between 2018 and 2023 from €722 to €896.
The amount of money that the Government has compared to what it owes has halved since 2019 from €180 billion to €90 billion in the second quarter of this year.
In 2024, 80 per cent of people aged 15 and over were satisfied with how democracy works in Ireland, compared with the EU average of 58 per cent.
CSO statistician Morgan O’Donnell said Ireland’s wellbeing indicators compare well with their EU equivalents.
He added: “This latest update of the CSO Well-being Information Hub provides a broadly positive picture of life in Ireland, with most indicators improving or remaining consistent over the long-term. However some groups performed less well than others.”
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