Roscommon is one of nine poorest counties

Roscommon is one of the nine poorest counties in the country in terms of disposable income, according to figures recently released from the Central Statistics Office. The disposable income per person in County Roscommon in 2005 was €18,038, compared to €17,879 in Mayo and €19,355 in Galway. The figure for Roscommon was lower than that for Longford, Offaly and Westmeath, and also lower than Leitrim and Monaghan, all of which were in the €18,000 – €19,000 bracket. Disposable income in Dublin was set at €22,793, while that of Kildare was €21,186. The three lowest counties recorded were May €17,879, Carlow €17,733 and Kerry €17,364. The figures for Roscommon have shown a considerable increase since 2000. In 2000 the disposable income was €12,278, in 2002 it rose to €15,176, and was up to €16,689 for 2004, before reaching €18,037 in 2005. The 2000 figure was 87.8 percent of the national average, while the 2005 figure is 89.5 percent. When rent is excluded from the equation, the figures for Roscommon in 2005 are 90.6 percent of the national average. In 2005 the disposable income per person in the Southern and Eastern region was three percent above the State average while the corresponding figure in the Border Midland and Western NUTS 2 region was 8.3 percent below the State average.  The Dublin region had the highest disposable income per person of the eight regional authority areas, being 13.0 percent above the State average in 2005; the comparable figure in 2000 was 16.5 percent. The disposable income per person of the Border region was 9.4 percent below the State average in 2005 and was the lowest of the eight Regional Authority Areas; the relative position of the region has improved since 2000 when it was 12.6 percent lower than the State average. At county level, the only counties, with an average disposable income per person in excess of the state average were Dublin, Limerick, Kildare and Wicklow. At the lower end of the scale there were nine counties with disposable incomes per person below 90 percent of the State average and seven counties between 90 percent and 95 percent of the State average.