The Northern Ireland Households Below Average Income Report (2015-16) is released

Date published: 17 August 2017

The Households Below Average Income report is produced annually by the Department for Communities and contains statistics on income, income inequality and poverty.

The Households Below Average Income report follows on from the Northern Ireland Poverty Bulletin released in May this year, providing a more detailed analysis of income and poverty in Northern Ireland.

Key facts include:

Unless specifically stated, any figures presented in this press release are not statistically significant.

Income

Before Housing Costs:

• In 2015-16, average (median) household income in Northern Ireland before housing costs was £436 per week or £22,800 per year, representing a 4% increase from the previous year. Average income in Northern Ireland reached its highest level in 2008/09 followed by a fall as a result of the economic recession. However, since 2011-12 incomes have begun to rise again, and in 2015-16 the income measures are very similar to those seen in 2008/09.
• Today’s HBAI report provides further detail on the income distribution. This shows, for example, that in 2015-16 those households in the top 20% of the income distribution had a weekly income 3.2 times higher than the bottom 20%. The Gini coefficient fell slightly to 28%. This compares to 35% in the UK, where income inequality is generally higher.

Whole population

Before Housing Costs:

• In 2015-16, 17% of individuals were considered to be in relative poverty and 15% were considered to be in absolute poverty. These are statistically significant decreases from 22% and 20% respectively in 2014/15.
• The HBAI report released today provides more information on those living in poverty. A key finding of this is that of all the family types, couples without children had the lowest risk of being in relative poverty, at 12%. The family type at the highest risk was single with children, at 33%.

Children

Before Housing Costs:

• The proportion of children in relative poverty fell four percentage points to 21% in 2015-16, down from 25% in the previous year. The proportion of children in absolute poverty has decreased to 18%, down by five percentage points (statistically significant) from the previous year.
• The long term trend shows that children are at a higher risk of living in poverty than the overall NI population in both relative and absolute measures.
• Today’s HBAI report shows, for example, that over three fifths of children (61%) living in workless households were in relative poverty in 2015-16.

Working-age adults

Before Housing Costs:

• The proportion of working age adults in relative poverty decreased five percentage points in 2015-16 to 16%, down from 21% in the previous year. The proportion of working age adults in absolute poverty decreased five percentage points to 14%, down from 19% in the previous year, both of these decreases are statistically significant.
• The HBAI shows that the risk of being in relative poverty is much higher for workless households compared to working households, 45% compared to 11%. However, because there is a greater number of working households in general, when we look at the profile of those living in poverty we can see that over three fifths of the individuals living in poverty are in households where at least one adult is in work.

Pensioners

After Housing Costs:

• The proportion of pensioners in relative poverty decreased one percentage point to 12% in 2015-16, down from 13% in the previous year. The proportion of pensioners in absolute poverty decreased three percentage points to 9% in 2015-16, down from 12% in the previous year.
• In 2015-16 both relative and absolute poverty has fallen to the lowest level recorded since the start of the time series in 2002/03.
• The HBAI report released today provides further detail on the income of pensioners. For example, in 2015-16 33% of pensioners with no occupational/personal pension were in relative poverty compared to 6% of pensioners with some occupational/personal pension.