The figures look at five distinct qualifiers to measure standard of living – people aged 25 and over living alone, broadband access, average class size, disposable income and owner-occupiers of property without a current loan or mortgage.

Despite a relatively low broadband coverage of 57.6%, Galway County consistently ranks higher than any other county in the statistics. On average residents can expect small primary class sizes of 23 children, a healthy disposable income of over €19,000 and a high percentage of homeowners without a mortgage (41.9%).

Only 12%, meanwhile, are living in a home without family, partners or roommates, compared to 17% in Leitrim and 16% in Dublin & Limerick cities.

The counties surrounding the other large cities – Limerick, Cork and Waterford – also fare well overall, as do Kildare, Wicklow and Mayo. At the bottom of the chart are Cavan, Waterford City and Longford, although each rate highly in individual areas.

The chart below illustrates the statistics per region, showing how individual counties and cities fare in the five categories. Dublin is split into four different areas - Fingal, South Dublin, Dublin City and Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown (where figures for the individual areas were unavailable, a county-wide average was used):

(Photo: Alvaro)