Ireland Sends Abroad Income Worth 31% of Its Economy Every Year
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 11 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 11 July 2026
Key estimates
- Ireland's net primary income outflow was 31.3% of GDP in 2025 — the largest in the Union.
- Luxembourg records -29.1%, Cyprus -11.1% and Malta -10.6%.
- Sweden records +4.9%, Germany +3.6% and Denmark +2.6%.
- Nineteen Member States pay out more primary income than they receive; seven receive more than they pay.
- This is the single figure that explains why Irish GDP overstates Irish incomes.
The difference between producing and receiving
Gross domestic product measures what is produced inside a country. Gross national income measures what its residents actually receive. The primary income balance is the bridge between them: profits, dividends, interest and wages flowing in, minus the same flowing out.
A negative balance means output produced in a country accrues to owners somewhere else.
Ireland
Ireland records -31.3% of GDP. Close to a third of everything produced in Ireland leaves as income to foreign owners each year.
This is the mechanism behind an observation that recurs across this site. Irish GDP per capita is the second-highest in the Union at 94,930 euro. Irish manufacturing is 30.8% of value added, the highest in the Union. Irish regions occupy first and third place in the European regional GDP ranking.
Every one of those figures is inflated by the output of foreign-owned firms, and this indicator measures the size of the inflation directly. Irish national income is very substantially lower than Irish domestic product, and the difference is 31.3 percentage points of GDP.
Where other studies on this site flag the Irish distortion as a caveat, this one quantifies it.
Luxembourg, Cyprus and Malta
Luxembourg records -29.1%, Cyprus -11.1% and Malta -10.6%.
All three host financial and corporate structures large relative to their domestic economies, and the income generated by those structures is paid out to non-residents. The same characteristic explains their positions on net external debt and on GDP per capita.
The recipients
Sweden records +4.9%, Germany +3.6%, Denmark +2.6% and France +1.7%.
These are net creditor economies. Decades of current account surpluses have built foreign asset positions — Denmark's is 103.3% of GDP and Germany's 82.3%, as the net investment position study records — and those assets now pay a return that flows home.
A positive primary income balance is what an accumulated creditor position looks like as an annual flow. It is income received for past saving rather than for current production.
Why nineteen Member States are negative
Most EU economies are net debtors to the rest of the world, and a net debtor pays out more income than it receives. That is the ordinary case, and small negative balances of one or two per cent of GDP describe most of the Union.
What makes the extremes remarkable is scale rather than sign. A balance of -31.3% is not a more negative version of the ordinary case; it is a different phenomenon, produced by foreign-owned production booked in a small economy rather than by accumulated borrowing.
The two look identical in this statistic and mean entirely different things, which is why the indicator should be read alongside the net investment position rather than on its own.
Primary income balance, 2025
| Country | % of GDP |
|---|---|
| Sweden | 4.9 |
| Germany | 3.6 |
| Denmark | 2.6 |
| Cyprus | -11.1 |
| Luxembourg | -29.1 |
| Ireland | -31.3 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Two different causes, one number
- A negative balance can arise from interest on accumulated debt or from profits of foreign-owned firms operating locally. Greece and Ireland are negative for entirely different reasons, and this statistic does not separate them.
- No EU aggregate is published
- Eurostat publishes no EU value for this series. Summing Member States would count intra-EU income flows on both sides, so no reference row is shown.
- Booked income need not move
- Profits attributed to foreign owners are recorded whether or not they are repatriated in the same year. Reinvested earnings appear in this balance and in the financial account simultaneously.
- Compensation of employees is included
- The balance includes cross-border wages as well as investment income. For Luxembourg, where a large share of the workforce lives abroad, that component is substantial.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the primary income balance?
- The difference between investment income and wages a country receives from abroad and what it pays out. It is the bridge between gross domestic product, which measures what is produced in a country, and gross national income, which measures what its residents receive.
- Which EU country loses the most income abroad?
- Ireland, at 31.3% of GDP in 2025 — close to a third of everything produced there accrues to foreign owners. Luxembourg follows at 29.1%, Cyprus at 11.1% and Malta at 10.6%.
- Why is Irish GDP misleading?
- Because 31.3% of Irish output leaves the country as income to foreign owners each year. Irish GDP per capita is second-highest in the Union, but Irish national income is very substantially lower, and this indicator measures the gap directly.
- Which EU countries receive more than they pay?
- Seven, led by Sweden at 4.9% of GDP, Germany at 3.6% and Denmark at 2.6%. These are net creditor economies earning a return on foreign assets accumulated through decades of current account surpluses.
Methodological note
The primary income balance is taken from Eurostat's balance of payments statistics under BPM6, expressed as a share of GDP, unadjusted, against the rest of the world. It covers compensation of employees, investment income and other primary income.
Values are for 2025 and cover all 27 Member States. Eurostat publishes no EU aggregate for this series, so none is quoted.
The counts of Member States in surplus and deficit are derived by Silver Data Lab. The comparisons with GDP per capita, manufacturing share, regional GDP and net investment positions draw on companion studies on this site, each with its own extraction.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Main Balance of Payments items as share of GDP (BPM6)
bop_gdp6_q
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · unit=PC_GDP · s_adj=NSA · bop_item=IN1 · stk_flow=BAL · partner=WRL_REST · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-08
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