Offaly was Ireland's third poorest county in 2020

Offaly was the third poorest county in the country in 2020, according to new Central Statistics Office figures.

The average disposable income per person in the county during 2020 was €18,757, or 80% of the national average of €23,461.

Only Donegal and Longford, 78.1% and 79.1% of the national average respectively, had lower rates than Offaly.

However, disposable incomes in Offaly actually rose during 2020, from €16,898 in 2019 to €18,757 in 2020.

The rise meant a narrowing of the gap between Offaly and the national average income during 2020. As a result, the average disposable income in Offaly were at 80% of the State average in 2020 compared to 76.7% in 2019.

However, the gap in monetary terms remains stark, with the average Offaly person having a disposable income of some €4,700 less than the average citizen of the State and a whopping €8,900 below the average Dubliner (€27,686).

Only four counties, Dublin, Limerick, Cork and Kildare, had disposable incomes above the State average, highlighting starkly the uneven distribution of income across the State,

Dublin City and County and the Mid-West are the only regions where income per person is above the state average.

The Midlands region continues to be the poorest in terms of disposable income, and is 18.7% below the state average per person, an improvement on the situation in 2019 when the average disposable income in the Midlands was 22.3% lower than the average across the State.

In fact, the Midlands has seen a 10.6% increase in average income per person to €17,243 from 2019.

On a countywide analysis, Midland counties account for four of the six poorest in the State, with along with Longford (second lowest) and Offaly (third lowest), Laois comes in at fourth lowest with 80.3% of the national average, and Westmeath is included at sixth lowest with 84.1% of the national average.

The CSO says that while the county calculations for average disposable income are estimates only and involve a certain degree of uncertainty, they provide a good guide to discrepancies in income between regions and counties.