Understanding Life in Ireland: 2025 Analysis

This year’s Report shows that Ireland’s overall performance is positive. Particularly strong performances are seen in areas such as Income and Wealth, Connections Community and Participation, and in Work and Job Quality. Only one of the eleven well-being dimensions, the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity, shows a negative performance over time, and when compared internationally.

While performance is positive on average, the Report also examines the Well-being Framework using an equality lens and unemployed people, younger people in the workforce, people in bad or very bad health, single-parent households, households with lower incomes, and households in accommodation rented at market rates are identified as groups which fare less well over time.

Of the 15 indicators considered particularly important for sustainability (economic, social and environmental), 11 have trending data and 8 of these have improved over the 5-year period. Three of these 8 perform particularly well: net government worth, new dwelling completions and high domestic energy ratings. Environmental sustainability indicators continue to perform less well although there are some positive signs – greenhouse gas emissions were lower in 2023 than in 2018 and while the volume of waste we are producing per capita has increased in the last 5 years, the figure is trending downward more recently.

Analysing progress under the Well-being Framework is now an annual contribution to the Budget process and supports a broader discussion of the impact of budgetary decisions. Ireland’s Well-being Framework provides policy-makers, Government and the Irish people with a more holistic way of thinking about how Ireland is doing as a country, with its focus on quality of life, with a particular emphasis on equality and sustainability across economic, environmental and social issues.