Report highlights economic gaps between Ireland and Northern Ireland

Ireland’s higher employment rates, longer life expectancy and faster growing population compared to Northern Ireland have been highlighted in a new report launched on Monday.

It is the first in a new series of annual reports by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) comparing the two economies.

Irish finance minister Simon Harris said the series would “spur debate” and highlight what areas could be focused on for better cooperation on the island.

The report found that Ireland had higher labour force participation and employment rates.

They stood at 78.5% and 75.1% retrospectively, higher than in Northern Ireland where the figures were at 75.7% and 74.3%.

But it also showed that unemployment was higher in the Republic at 4.4% compared to Northern Ireland’s at 1.8%, which reflects the differences in labour market dynamics.

The report found: “Ireland outperforms Northern Ireland across several measures of living standards”, including disposable income and hourly earnings.

One of the key factors which reflects the effects of income, education and access to health services, the report says, is life expectancy.

In 2022 it was 80.9 years for men and 84.2 years for women in Ireland, compared to 78.9 and 82.7 years in Northern Ireland, a gap of about two years for men and 1.5 years for women.

An area of notable contrast is population growth, the report outlines how between 2015 and 2024, Ireland’s population grew by 14.8%, while Northern Ireland’s population grew by 3.9%.

The report did note the difference between how policy is formed in the two jurisdictions, as Ireland is a sovereign state and Northern Ireland is a devolved nation.

But did say the programmes for government in both shared common themes of productivity, competitiveness and decarbonisation.

The work is part of a project between the ESRI and the Shared Island Unit in the Department of the Taoiseach and aims to “develop further joint understanding of the economies of Ireland and Northern Ireland in an effort to support policy development, inform future research, and encourage greater collaboration on shared challenges and opportunities across the island”.

Launching the report, Tanaiste Simon Harris said the annual series would “build on” previous ESRI research done on behalf of the Shared Island programme.

He said the annual series would look at “broader and deeper” data comparisons to yield insights and “food for thought”.

“The series will build up a crucial evidence base on economic similarities and differences, North and South, and help identify how we could cooperate more for mutual benefit, across a range of policy areas.”

He said insight into the similarities and divergences north and south – such as differences on sectoral structure, labour market participation and overall rates of education attainment – were “vital” metrics needed to develop more cooperation on the island.

He said that he agreed productivity, competitiveness, and decarbonisation “all hold strong potential for future work by both administrations”.

“It with this context of success and of opportunity – and recognising also that there are challenges and there are divergences in our economy and society, North and South – that the new ESRI research series will engage – mapping, analysing, informing and spurring debate.

“That is exactly what we need to help inform and deepen the cooperation agenda and indeed a wider island-wide conversation.”

Commenting on the findings, co-author of the ESRI report, Alan Barrett said: “Our goal is to assess over time how the two economies evolve and how policy is influencing those evolutions, always with a view to informing policy.”