Survey shows what Irish people have been worried about and focused on the most in 2017

We worry about money the most, but not as much as we used to.

According to research commissioned by leading protection specialist Royal London, money tops the list of things people are worried about the most for the second year running.

They found that 37% of Irish people view money as their biggest worry this year but this is almost 10% less than the 46% who said that money was their biggest concern in 2016.

The Royal London commissioned survey, conducted by iReach, asked 1,000 respondents nationwide what their biggest worries were and also what their biggest focus was in 2017.

Biggest Worry	2017	2016		Biggest Focus	2017	2016
Money	37%	46%		Health	37%	40%
Family	22%	14%		Career	26%	21%
Health	18%	19%		Travel	13%	13%
Loneliness	8%	4%		Family	10%	12%
Work	8%	10%		Property	8%	9%
Relationship/ Love	6%	5%		Love	6%	5%
Friends	1%	2%

Joe Charles, Royal London Head of Proposition commented, “Unsurprisingly, money has topped the poll as Irish people’s biggest worry for the last two years.

"What is surprising though is that there has been quite a drop in the number of people who identified money as their biggest concern in 2017 when compared with last year.

"This could this be an indicator that things are on the up for people financially as Ireland is on track to have the EU’s fastest growing economy for the fourth successive year and has a decreasing unemployment rate which last month was at a near 9-year low*.”

The Royal London survey found that after money, 22% worried about their family most in 2017, a big jump from the 14% who said the same the previous year.

Meanwhile, double the number of respondents said they were concerned with loneliness compared to 2016; 8% versus 4% respectively.

They also broke down the concerns and aspirations into age and province and found that money and family remain relatively the same over each age bracket and each location.  

Biggest Worry 2017

	18-34	35-54	55+	Dub	RoL	Mun	Conn/Uls
Money	35%	42%	26%	35%	43%	40%	31%
Loneliness	6%	9%	8%	8%	7%	9%	6%
Family	22%	22%	25%	24%	22%	21%	22%
Work	15%	5%	3%	11%	3%	6%	11%
Health	10%	17%	35%	16%	18%	14%	27%
Friends	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	1%	0%
Relationship/Love	11%	4%	2%	5%	6%	9%	3%

Biggest Focus 2017

	18-34	35-54	55+
Career related	42%	21%	7%
Family related	13%	10%	3%
Property related	10%	9%	2%
Love related	6%	7%	1%
Travel related	10%	12%	27%
Health related	19%	41%	60%

                        Unsurprisingly, career is the thing that people aged 18-34 focus on the most but when you get to 55+, it drops by over 30%. The same goes for health. While it is less than 20% of a priority when you're 18-34, focus on health triples when you get to the 55+ age bracket.