Household Wealth

This quarterly report on the wealth of Irish households complements the statistical releases for Irish Quarterly Financial Accounts with more detail on households' assets and liabilities and a breakdown by wealth distribution.

Key Points – Q1 2026

Publication date: 27 August 2026

• The net wealth of Irish households reached €1,429.5bn at the end of Q1 2026, increasing by €55.3bn since the previous quarter.
• Total household investment of €7.9bn over the quarter was mainly driven by investment in new housing assets.
• The total value of housing assets owned by Irish households increased by €14.1bn since the previous quarter, largely due to positive revaluations.
• As of Q1 2026, the wealthiest 10 per cent of households held 47.2 per cent of total net wealth in the country.

Total net wealth of Irish households rose by €55.3bn to stand at €1,429.5bn in Q1 2026. This represents a new series high, continuing the pattern of growth seen in recent years.

The overall increase in net wealth was mainly driven by a rise in financial assets, which increased by €42.8bn. Households’ total financial assets stood at €643.8bn at the end of Q1 2026 and were mainly composed of currency and deposits (€222.5bn) and insurance and pension entitlements (€312.0bn).

Housing wealth accounts for 66.1 per cent of total net wealth and 59.5 per cent of the total assets of Irish households. It increased by €14.1bn over the quarter, largely due to positive revaluations.

Total liabilities, mainly consisting of long-term loans, totalled €158.9bn. This amount increased by €1.6bn from the end of the previous quarter.

Households’ total investment in new housing and financial assets totalled €7.9bn in Q1 2026. Of this, investment in new housing equalled €3.2bn, which is €1.8bn lower than in the previous quarter. Financial investments were primarily in currency and deposits (€2.2bn), and equity and investment fund shares (€1.3bn).

In recent years, Irish households have generally displayed positive quarterly investment in housing and financial instruments.

Total household assets increased by €56.9bn since the previous quarter. In Q1 2026, the household debt-to-assets ratio declined to 9.6 per cent, as loans increased only marginally (€1bn) to stand at €153.1bn.

The debt-to-income ratio of Irish households also marginally decreased, reaching 80.3 per cent at the end of the quarter. Data from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows that household gross disposable income (on an annualised basis) equalled €190.7bn as of Q1 2026.

Distributional Wealth Accounts (DWA) data provide insights on the distribution of wealth across Irish households.

As of Q1 2026, the wealthiest 10 per cent of Irish households owned €693.1bn, or 47.2 per cent of total household net wealth in the country.

The total net wealth of households in the poorest half of the distribution increased by €3.8bn (2.7 per cent) to stand at €145.0bn, or 9.9 per cent of the national total.

As a result, the richest 10 per cent of Irish households held nearly five times the amount held by households in the bottom half of the net wealth distribution altogether as of Q1 2026.

Households in the “middle” part of the distribution (i.e., those in deciles 6 to 9) owned €629.4bn overall, or 42.9 per cent of total net wealth in the country at quarter-end.

The balance sheet composition of Irish households differs significantly between the wealthier and poorer.

Overall, as of Q1 2026, households in the top net wealth decile displayed a more diversified portfolio composition: other financial assets (i.e., debt securities, listed shares, investment fund shares, and life insurance and annuity entitlements) featured prominently, accounting for 21.3 per cent of total assets. Wealthier households also displayed lower leverage (4.0 per cent), when compared to households in the bottom half of the wealth distribution.

Conversely, poorer households held the largest part of their financial wealth in deposits (18.6 per cent of their total assets), and were significantly more leveraged (27.1 per cent).

For all household groups, housing assets represent the main component of their wealth.

Since the beginning of the series, the balance sheet composition of households in each wealth decile has remained generally stable over time.

As of Q4 2025, the Irish Gini coefficient (a widely used measurement of wealth inequality) was 62.9.

This remained well below the value of the same index for the euro area as a whole (73.1) and of most other European countries, as it has been for the past years. Moreover, since the beginning of the series, the Gini coefficient for Ireland decreased significantly, indicating a notable reduction in the level of wealth inequality in the country.

The sustained de-leveraging process of poorer households and the rise in value of housing assets over the years – which mainly benefited households for whom this asset represents a larger component of their total wealth (i.e., mid-lower deciles) – drove the increase in the share of total net wealth held by the poorest half of households. As a result, net wealth inequality in Ireland significantly decreased since the beginning of the series.

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