It also found Northern Ireland to have all of the top ten property "hot spots", with the Craigavon and Newtownards areas increasing by 55%.

[15] However, as of 2018, Northern Ireland house prices are the lowest on average in the UK, approximately 40% lower than before the bubble burst in 2008.

Northern Ireland's macroeconomy is also characterised by considerably longer actual working hours and lower gender income disparity than in the United Kingdom as a whole.

[24][25][26] The economy of Northern Ireland was negatively impacted by the lockdowns and travel restrictions necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

[30] Government assistance was available; the £25,000 Retail, Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure Grant was closed by 25 March 2021 but "a further payment" was to be made to eligible businesses.

[citation needed] In 2024, key industries in Northern Ireland include aerospace, agriculture, construction, engineering, health technology, manufacturing, services and tourism.

By 2021, Northern Ireland was self-sufficient in food production and was able to export more than half of its meat and crops to the rest of the UK and beyond.

Other industries such as papermaking, furniture manufacturing, aerospace and shipbuilding are also important, concentrated mostly in the eastern parts of Northern Ireland.

[44] Engineering is the largest manufacturing sub-sector in Northern Ireland, particularly in the fields of aerospace and heavy machinery.

[45] Harland and Wolff, which in the early 20th century was the world's biggest shipbuilder, suffered from intense international competition during the 1970s and 1980s and declined rapidly.

During the 1990s the company diversified into civil engineering and industrial fabrication, manufacturing bridges and oil platforms.

In December 2008 the public sector in Northern Ireland accounted for 30.8% of the total workforce; this is significantly higher than the overall UK figure.

[50] In late 2018 The Irish Times estimated that the subvention had risen to £10.8 billion, about a quarter of Northern Ireland's GDP.

The electricity grid throughout the island of Ireland is operated as a single system, with separate control centers in Dublin and Belfast.

[54] Gas for the Greater Belfast area is supplied via the Scotland-Northern Ireland pipeline (SNIP), a 24-inch-diameter (610 mm) interconnector.

[59] There are seven motorways in Northern Ireland, extending radially from Belfast, and connecting that city to Antrim, Dungannon, Lisburn, Newtownabbey, and Portadown.

Northern Ireland Railways (NIR) runs passenger trains and presently carries no freight.

[61] In addition to these existing links, several organisations have proposed a tunnel under the North Channel, with one possible site connecting the eastern part of Northern Ireland to Wigtownshire.

[64] Alongside official national statistics a number of respected private sector surveys are used to understand how the economy is performing.

These include the British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey[65] which has information on the performance of Northern Irish businesses since 1989.

There are huge regional disparities in the UK with GDP per capita ranging from £23,000 in the North East of England to £56,450 in London in 2024.