Irish households’ wealth triples in ten years

IRISH households saw their combined wealth more than triple over the last ten years — but their total debts grew equally fast.

In 1995, if wealth was divided equally, every man, woman and child in the country was worth an average of €45,995 but by the end of 2005 that had leaped to 148,130. According to a Bank of Ireland report, this figure puts Ireland second only to Japan in a comparison of eight of the largest countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).

However, the ‘Wealth of a Nation’ report published yesterday also shows that household debt was valued at 48% of household wealth in 1995 but had rocketed to 140% by the end of 2005 and is set to increase further to 180% by 2015.