Ireland has the highest proportion of people living in poverty in the industrialised world, excluding the US, according to a United Nations report published today.
The Human Development Report 1998 ranks Ireland as a highly desirable country in which to live, but it also points to glaring inequalities in the distribution of wealth within the State.
In particular, it finds that Irish women are worse off relative to men than in any other Western country. They are also less likely to be in positions of power in business or politics.
Ireland also has the highest levels of functional illiteracy of 17 industrialised states, and the second-highest level of long-term unemployment.
According to the Human Poverty Index (HPI), published by the UN Development Programme, Ireland ranks 16th out of the 17 countries, with 15.2 per of the population in "human poverty".
Only the US, with 16.5 per cent in poverty, is worse. The UK comes 15th in the table. Top of the list is Sweden, with a rating of 6.8 per cent.
"Human poverty" is an aggregate arrived at from the figures for life expectancy after 60, illiteracy, poverty and long-term unemployment.
Women here earned only 26.9 per cent of all income in 1995 - the year for which the data were compiled - compared with 44.7 per cent earned by Swedish women. In most industrialised countries, and at least three developing nations, women are more likely to have leading roles in work or politics than in Ireland.
In the Human Development Index (HDI), the main measure of social progress used in the report, Ireland ranks 17th of the 175 states surveyed. This is the same as last year, and marks the end of a period of steady improvement.
HDI is a widely-accepted measure of the quality of life which takes account of income levels, life expectancy and education.
For the fifth year in succession, Canada topped the index.
Measured by per capita income alone, Ireland ranks 25th in the world. Our higher rating on the HDI shows that Ireland's quality of life is higher than our income alone would indicate.
But when the index is adjusted for gender disparities, Ireland falls from 17th to 27th in the HDI rankings, reflecting the inferior status of women here.
Almost 23 per cent of Irish people are functionally illiterate, meaning they have difficulty with basic tasks such as following instructions on a medical bottle or reading a story to a child. The corresponding figure in the UK is 22 per cent, but in Sweden it is 7 per cent.
Long-term unemployment in Ireland stood at 7.6 per cent in 1995, second only to Spain.
The principal theme of this year's report is consumption. It shows that although consumption in Ireland is generally lower than the average in industrialised countries - though far higher than in the developing world - it is growing at a faster rate.
In the case of carbon dioxide emissions, while the overall output for industrialised countries is falling, Irish emissions are increasing. They now account for 0.1 per cent of the world total.
Consumption of electricity is also rising fast, from 3,106 kilowatt-hours a head in 1980 to 5,308 kilowatt-hours in 1995. The average for industrial countries in 1995 was 7,542 kilowatt-hours, and for developing countries only 814 kilowatt-hours.
Only 12 per cent of paper is recycled here, compared with an EU average of 45 per cent. Glass recycling stands at 39 per cent, compared with 52 per cent in the EU.
