I’m Jude Weber, Irish correspondent for FT, and today I’m focusing on Northern Ireland.
Conveniently, the National Statistics Office has just released updated data on UK GDP, and there is an unusually bright reading for Northern Ireland.
The UK’s least productive region appears as the only region in the UK where GDP per capita is growing. Not a big deal, but at least black, at least in black, Wales, West Midlands, East Midlands, Northeast, Yorkshire & Humber. Data published a year ago is only located above Wales and the Northeast.
All studies published in Starker last week by Queen’s University in Belfast in Starker have found that researchers there delve into census data and found that two local governments in Northern Ireland (Delhi City & Stravan and Belfast) have areas that are more deprived than the remaining 374 other municipalities in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.
Put another way, Northern Ireland has the highest level of the most disadvantaged regions, 25% above 25% in the northeastern England (21%) and the West Midlands (16.5%).
Anyone familiar with the long-standing wait to see the massive state of the Northern Ireland consultant and the NHS in the area will not be surprised to learn that deprivation of health is particularly high. Nearly 28% of Northern Ireland’s regions are nearly 28% of the UK’s most deprived areas, with over 23% in Scotland and over 16% in the northeastern UK. It is away from the world where 1.5% of London’s region is ranked most deprived of poor health.
“Insights are important to inform public policy,” said Professor Christopher Lloyd, who led the project. “Our research allows policymakers to make funding claims considering their knowledge of how regional domains are compared to other regions, nationally, or across the UK.”
Was it that simple? Stormont executives recognize that 17% of people live in relative income poverty (before housing costs) according to community sector data released last month. This means that household income is less than 60% of the UK median level, with 15% living in absolute poverty. For children, these numbers are 23% and 20% respectively.
However, the official poverty prevention strategy – a commitment almost 20 years ago – has not yet been adopted by executives who were found to violate a legal obligation to enact one last month.
And despite the power of knowledge, as Lloyd put it, “fundraising claims” are constantly frugal in Northern Ireland and often fruitless.
Earlier this month, passing the 2025-26 “doing the most important thing” budget, Finance Minister John O’Doud cut the UK’s longest waiting list for health services and doubled the executive’s childhood investment and childcare strategy to £50 million. However, he denounced Westminster for “continued austerity policies.”
The region received a record £18.2 billion in UK budget last year, and Northern Ireland’s secretary Hillary Ben has backed Stormont for not continuing to overhaul public services, saying earlier this year it is not a barrier to public services transformation, given the increased funding given by the government. it hurts.
Before looking at education in the next section, it is also worth looking at Northern Ireland’s happiness from another perspective. Comparison with the Republic of Ireland.
In a report released this week, the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has Northern Ireland’s people pay about half the income tax on average in Ireland, with wealth about 60% higher than in the North (measured by Ireland’s gross national income per capita and Northern Ireland’s GDP).
However, although distilled to one important equivalent metric, there is some odd news in Northern Ireland. The average life expectancy of 80.4 is 2 years less than the Republic, and the UK average of 80.7 years.
UK numbers
Northern Ireland is not the only way to track both the UK and Ireland. Education is different. The Queen’s study highlighted four local governments in Northern Ireland among the UK’s top 20 in terms of education deprivation. Two of them – Delhi City & Straban and Belfast – are in the top 10. Comparing recently available data (often with a slight delay), ESRI found in 2022 that nearly three-quarters of Northern Ireland’s age group were enrolled in schools.
Northern Ireland’s Selective Education Model – Holds Transfer Test for High Performance Grammar Schools. This will allow top students to get the best grades at a level than England and Wales, while those who are less than enough will strengthen their education division.
Early past schools in the Republic were halved between 2018 and 2022, but Northern Ireland rose from 9.4% to 10%, with the number of non-Education, Employment and Training (NEET) young people in 2022 being 2.6% higher, increasing gaps between jurisdictions.
One bright spot is that the rate of NEET among men is stable, whereas they are trending among women. However, this is a concern for local policymakers who are expected to see a decline in the number of working-age people over the next few years and increase the number of pensions they will have to pay. By 2047, an estimated 58.5% in the region are 16-64 years old, with 26% over 65 years old, compared to 62.2% and 17.6% in 2022.
Researchers know that the legacy of poverty and trauma from local troubles has a role to play in areas where education remains highly separate. Northern Ireland this month celebrated the 27th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, the Peace Agreement, with incomplete progress in addressing continuous division and deprivation, as highlighted by the chart above.
But to finish off the memo of hope, the Springboard project, an organization that works with marginalized youths, brought together two groups living on different sides of Belfast’s first peace wall, sequestering Protestant and Catholic regions. Of the 16 participants in the project funded by the International Fund for Ireland, over half suffered from trauma, 75% suffered from mental health issues, and all came from underprivileged areas.
The idea was simple. Help young people see that they share a lot despite the department. As one participant, Molly, she said, “I am truly proud of the community I came from and I want to see it flourish.”
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