People in Dublin have the highest disposable income per person in the State. That is according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
They also have the highest rate of employment and the lowest jobless rate.
A report into Regional Quality of Life shows the counties with the lowest spend per person are Donegal, Offaly and Monaghan.
The report also shows Mayo has the fewest drivers with penalty points while Kildare has the highest. Workers in the Mid-East region have the longest travel time to work compared to the shortest journey times in the South-West.
County Roscommon boasts the smallest class sizes in primary schools in the state. The highest rate of car ownership is in North Tipperary while the lowest is Limerick City.
Other main findings are below:
Population: One in eight residents of Ireland in 2011 were not Irish, according to the Census of Population. This varied from 16% in Dublin to just under 10% in the Mid-West and South-East regions. Approximately one in five people in Galway City were not Irish compared to 8% in Donegal. About one quarter of the population in Meath and Laois were aged 0-14 in 2011 while 15% in Cork City were in this age group.
Housing: In 2011 15% of all accommodation was vacant. The Border and West regions had the highest vacancy rates with more than one in five dwellings vacant, with counties along the west coast and Wexford also having rates above 20%. Over a third of dwellings in the Midland and Mid-East regions were built between 2001 and 2011 compared to a rate of 22% in Dublin. Detached houses accounted for 12% of all dwellings in Dublin while elsewhere the rate ranged from 46% in the Mid-East to 65% in the West. Dublin had the highest new (€290,668) and second-hand (€330,894) average property prices in 2011 while Waterford recorded the lowest new (€205,598) and second-hand (€190,315) prices.
Lifestyles: Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown had the highest proportion of people in the social class professional workers at 15% while Monaghan, at 4%, had the lowest. Over a third of people in Monaghan were in the skilled or semi skilled social classes compared to just 14% in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown. Turnout in the Children’s referendum in 2012 varied from 28% in the Border region to 37% in Dublin. Broadband access varied widely across the country in 2011, from nearly three-quarters of households in Dublin compared with half of households in Longford. Road and traffic offences were the most common recorded crime offences in 2010, with a rate of 83.7 per 1,000 population in
the Dublin Metropolitan region compared with 36.4 in the Northern region.
Transport and travel: Just under one in five drivers had penalty points on their licences in December 2012, varying from 15% in the West to 22% in the Mid-East. At county level, Mayo had the fewest drivers with penalty points (13%) while Kildare at 23% had the highest. Nationally 16% of workers took over 45 minutes to travel to work in 2011, varying from 27% in the Mid-East to just 11% in the South-West.
Health and care: In 2010, 6% of those aged 18 and over had both private health insurance and a medical card. Three out of ten people had a medical card only while just over four out of ten had private health insurance only. In the Border region 38% had a medical card only compared with just under a quarter in Dublin, the Mid-East and
Mid-West. Nearly half of those aged 18 and over in the Mid-West had private health insurance only compared with 29% in the Border region. Six out of ten persons in 2011 perceived their health to be “very good”, varying from 58% in the West to 64% in the Mid-East. The average age in Ireland in 2011 was 36.1, ranging from 34.2 in the MidEast to 37.2 in the West.
Education: About three out of ten people had a 3rd level qualification in 2011, varying from 23% in the Midland region to 36% in Dublin. Nationally, 22% of people finished their full-time education at 15-17 years of age, varying 12 from over a quarter in the South-East and Border regions to under 20% in Dublin. Roscommon had the smallest primary school average class size of 21.5 in 2012 while Fingal, at 26.5, had the largest.
Economy: Disposable income per person in the Dublin region, at €21,515, was 11% above the national average in 2010. All other regions were below the national average with the Midland region 11% below, at just €17,133. At county level, disposable income per person was lowest in Donegal at 83% of the national average, or €16,106, followed by Offaly (€16,168) and Monaghan (€16,303). Over three-quarters of workers were employed in the Services sector in 2012 while the Dublin region had the highest rate at 89%. The Midlands and South-East (23%) had the highest percentages of workers in the Industry sector. The employment rate in 2012 was highest in Dublin at 62% and lowest in the Border region at 52%. The South-East, at 19%, recorded the highest unemployment rate while the lowest was in Dublin, at 12%.
Environment: Galway City had 43% of household waste collected as kerbside recyclables (i.e., green and brown bins) in 2010, while Wicklow, at 8%, had the lowest. Nationally 23% of household waste was collected as kerbside recyclables. In Ireland in 2011 there were 532 cars per 1,000 persons aged 16 and over. The highest rates were in North Tipperary (624) and Carlow (612) while the lowest rates were in Limerick City (462) and Louth (485). There were 87 Blue Flag beaches in 2012, with Donegal, Kerry, Mayo and Cork accounting for over half of these.
