Top 10% of Irish households almost richer than other 90% combined

The richest 10 per cent of Irish households own almost as much wealth as all other households in the country combined, new data just released shows.

Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA) published for the first time by the Central Bank examine the growth of household wealth in Ireland on a quarterly basis between 2013 and 2023.

The amount of Irish millionaires has more than doubled in the last 10 years. 

The total net wealth of Irish households has more than doubled over the last ten years, and now stands at just under €1.079 trillion in the second quarter of 2023.

Net wealth is defined as assets minus liabilities such as mortgage debt etc.

This growth significantly outpaces the rise of household wealth across the euro area, which increased by 54 per cent over the same period to a total of €21 billion.

The share of Irish households with net wealth of €1 million or more, suggests that the share of households that are millionaires has more than doubled from 5% to 12% between Q2 2013 and Q1 2022, increasing from approximately 87,000 to 223,000 households over this period.

There has been a sustained rise in property prices in the last decade, with prices up by 4.4pc in the last year alone.