Dublin outstrips regions for quality of life

Dublin comes out on top when it comes to a broad range of quality of life indicators, according to the latest report from the Central Statistics Office.

The capital has the highest disposable income per person, the greatest rates of 3rd level educational success, the lowest rates of Medical Card ownership, the highest average house prices and the most extensive reach of domestic broadband internet services.

Dublin also has among the lowest rates of unoccupied housing, the highest proportion of people in the upper social classes and the highest rates of voting in the last referendum on children’s rights.

Things tend to decline the farther one travels from Dublin. The lowest rates of disposable income are to be found in Donegal while the Border counties have the lowest employment rate. The highest levels of unemployment are to be found in the south east.

More than one in five of houses is vacant in the Border and West regions with rates of 20 per cent also found in Wexford.

Monaghan has the second lowest levels of disposable income, along with Offaly, and also the lowest numbers in the professional workers social class. Just 4 per cent of the county's population is described thus while the equivalent figure for the Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown is 15 per cent.

The average disposable income of Dubliners currently stands at just over €21,500 – just over 11 per cent higher than the figure for the state as a whole. Everywhere else is below that average with Donegal people living on €16,100 or 83 per cent of that average. Figures for Monaghan and Offaly come with €200 of the Donegal average.

Some three-quarters of workers are employed in the services sector on average, but the figure for Dublin rises to 89 per cent. The Midlands and the South east have the largest proportion working in industry – 23 per cent. More than 33 per cent of people in Monaghan are in the skilled or semi-skilled social categories. The equivalent figure for Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown in just 14 per cent.

Just half of all dwellings in Co Longford have broadband internet service while the figure for the capital is closer to 75 per cent.

The Dublin population is also the most diverse, where nearly one in six people are not Irish. This figure falls to under 10 per cent in the Mid-West and South-east.