The Central Bank of Ireland’s Quarterly Household Wealth Report shows the combined net wealth of all Irish households reached €1.247tn at the end of the first quarter of 2025.
That tally was up €6.3bn since the end of 2024.
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Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Thursday, August 28
The wealthiest 10pc of Irish households owned €645.3bn of total net wealth but for the first time in five years their share of wealth declined, largely driven by a decrease in the value of life insurance and annuity entitlements.
The net wealth of the poorest 50pc of households rose, by €2.6bn, to €117.8bn in the quarter. That’s still less than 9pc of the national total and was mainly due to housing assets’ growth.
The Central Bank says that since the beginning of the Household Wealth series in 2013, the proportion of wealth owned by the poorest half of households has followed an upward trend, which it says highlights decreasing wealth inequality in Ireland.
The data shows the wealthiest households’ assets are a mix, including business wealth and property, while poorer households’ wealth tends to include a heavy focus on saving deposits.
For all household groups, housing assets represent the main component of their wealth.
The total value of housing assets owned by Irish households increased by €15.2bn in the first three months of 2025, largely reflecting rising house prices.
Households’ financial assets stood at €555.5bn at the end of Q1 2025, and were mainly composed of currency and deposits (€211.6bn) and insurance and pension entitlements (€252.8bn), the report shows.
The snapshot of wealth does not look at income, but rather at assets households have built up minus debts owed.
The borrowing situation in Ireland has changed dramatically since the financial crisis two decades ago, when Irish households had some of the largest mortgage debts in the world. With declining home ownership rates and tougher borrowing rules for those who do have a mortgage, average debt is in decline.
In the first three months of this year total household loans decreased by €500m, to €157.1bn. At the same time assets increased by €6.2bn, including as a result of rising house prices.