People's reluctance to disclose their incomes may force the abandonment of a proposal to include a question about incomes in the next census in 2001. Mr Aidan Punch, who is in charge of the census operation at the Central Statistics Office, said a question about income would be included in a small-scale pilot census next year. But, he said, he would not be surprised if, when the results were analysed, it was decided to drop the question from the next main census.
He believed many people would be very reluctant to disclose their income on a census form. A high level of incomplete or inaccurate information would compromise the whole census, which depended on a near-total response rate and reliable replies.
He was commenting on a map showing the proportion of people in the two top social classes in the State's district electoral divisions and wards, the smallest geographical units for electoral purposes.
The map was created by Gamma Ltd, which repackages census information for business customers compiling marketing information about specific areas.
The most affluent areas shown on the map are those in which more than 40 per cent of the population is in the top two social classes.
The map shows a scattering of such areas around the midlands and in the cities and big towns. It shows few affluent areas in the west or north-west, but exceptions include Sligo town, Galway city and Letterkenny.
It also shows a "corridor" of affluence from Ennis up to north Clare/south Galway.
Kerry also has a number of pockets of affluence in an area bounded by Killarney, Cahirciveen and Kenmare.
Individuals who want to get the detailed census findings for their own districts can obtain them at a nominal cost from the Central Statistics Office, Mr Punch said.
Meanwhile, Combat Poverty has published a study, Where Are Poor Households? - The Spatial Distribution of Poverty and Deprivation in Ireland, which approaches the subject from the opposite end of the social scale.
Using information from national household surveys and the census, it says the highest risk of poverty is in villages and towns with populations of less than 3,000.
In Dublin, almost 70 per cent of households renting local authority housing are living in poverty, it says.
The risk of being poor rose both for local authority tenants and for people who bought their houses from the local authority in the seven years to 1994.
Mr Hugh Frazer, Combat Poverty director, said the next national development plan would have to take account of the report's findings. "This report is particularly relevant to the development of antipoverty strategies by local authorities, and in the development of housing policy," he said.