Average household size in Northern Ireland has traditionally been greater than in Great Britain. In 1997-98, average household size in Northern Ireland was 2.74 persons. Total expenditure within the Secretary of State's responsibility in 1998-99 was estimated at 9,172m.
Government incurs expenditure on a number of types of cash benefits.
This represents 9,234 per head of population, which in turn is 80.4 per cent of the average UK GDP per head. The average gross weekly wage of employees in Northern Ireland at April 1998 was 332.6. There were 5.8m rail passenger journeys undertaken in 1998-99, which generated passenger receipts of 12.8m. During 1998, 4m people flew in and out of Northern Ireland's main airports. Visitor tourism to Northern Ireland increased by 4 per cent in 1998 over the previous year, primarily as a result of an upturn in visitor numbers from Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.