Households in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown have the highest median income in Ireland at €84,991, according to new figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) for 2022. The area significantly outpaces Longford, which recorded the lowest median household income in Leinster at €47,217.
The CSO’s “Geographical Profiles of Income in Ireland” revealed stark regional disparities, with the Stillorgan local electoral area claiming the highest household income nationwide at nearly €100,000 (€99,352), followed by Blackrock at €94,381.
Among provincial rankings, Cork County led Munster with a median gross household income of €60,906, while Kerry recorded the province’s lowest at €48,320. In Connacht, Galway County topped the list at €59,895, with Leitrim at the bottom with €45,267. For Ulster counties within the Republic, Cavan ranked highest at €52,321, while Donegal had both the province’s and the country’s lowest median household income at €42,497.
At the town level, Malahide in Dublin emerged as Ireland’s most affluent town with a median gross household income of €97,168, followed by Ratoath in Meath (€96,273) and Donabate in Dublin (€95,871). The lowest median income was recorded in Lifford, Donegal, at just €31,959—less than a third of Malahide’s figure.
The data highlights significant wealth concentration, with 14.6% of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown households earning €200,000 or more annually, compared to just 1% in Donegal. Nationally, approximately half of Irish households had gross incomes below €60,000 in 2022, though this figure varied considerably by region—from nearly two-thirds of households in Donegal to just over one-third in Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown.
Eva O’Regan, statistician in the CSO’s Income, Consumption and Wealth division, noted that the statistics were produced using pseudonymized administrative data to protect individual privacy while providing valuable insights at multiple levels of geography, including county, local authority, local electoral area, and electoral division.
The findings underscore the persistent economic divide between Dublin’s affluent suburbs and rural or economically disadvantaged regions, raising questions about regional development and income inequality across Ireland.