Relative sectorial income from agriculture in Electoral Districts

The Agri-Food sector is an important sector in the Irish economy. The August Map of the Month shows ranking of the share of the income in each Electoral District (ED) attributed to Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing.

View the map here: Relative sectorial income from agriculture in Electoral Districts

Cartographer: Dr Jesko Zimmermann and Dr Stuart Green

View previous Maps of the Months here

The Agri-Food sector is an important sector in the Irish economy. According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine it accounted for 7.5 % of the ModifiedGross National Income, 7.7 % of employment, and 10 % of total exports (all values for 2018). The national median share of income from Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing was reported at 7.6 % for 2016 (CSO). However, the share of the sector on incomes varies spatially.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) published spatially explicit data on incomes from 2016 which we use to gain a better understanding of the spatial distribution of farmer incomes, and the importance of the agricultural sector in specific regions. Specifically we use two datasets:

• Median income by detailed occupation per county. From this dataset we extracted the median income of farmers. Even though the agricultural sector includes other occupations than farmers, it was not possible to summarise incomes across all occupations as this would require knowledge of the number of people employed in each occupation. The table below compares the median farm income with the highest and lowest incomes in each county.
• Proportion of earned income sectors by Electoral Division. From this we extracted the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery income proportions and ranked it compared to the other sectors described (rank 1: largest share, rank 7: smallest share). The other sectors are; Construction; Financial, Real Estate, Administrative and Services; ICT, Scientific and Recreation; Industry; Public Service, Education and Health; and Wholesale, Transport and Accommodation.

While the these two datasets are not fully comparable due to their differing spatial scales and different groups of which the incomes/share of income were calculated they still provide an interesting overview of the distribution of incomes, and the importance of agriculture in Ireland.

As the map shows, median income follows a West-East and North-South slope, with the east and the south showing the highest median farmer incomes. This distribution is common in agriculture as intensive farming is more prevalent in the south and east while the north and west are generally more extensively farmed. Waterford has the highest median farm income in Leitrim the lowest.

The share of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery sectors shows a more complex distribution. The highest ranking areas show up in the midlands, as well as in parts of the south and west. This indicates that the suitability of land for more intensive farming does not always drive the importance of agriculture compared to other sectors, and that the economic importance of agriculture in an area does not necessarily show in farmers’ incomes. 

The table below shows the median farmers' income in each county compared to the lowest and highst median incomes, and respective occupations.