Preliminary figures from the EU's statistics agency show that Ireland's economic output per person was 25% ahead of the EU average last year.
Eurostat used a measure of economic output which takes account of prices and exchange rates in the 27 countries, giving an EU average of 100. Ireland's gross domestic product per head was 125% of the average in 2010.
In Ireland, GDP includes the activities of the many multi-national companies based here.
Denmark, Austria and Sweden were also around 25% ahead of the average. Luxembourg's GDP per head was 283% of the average, while the Netherlands was next on 134%.
Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were between 35% and 50% lower than average, while Romania and Bulgaria were around 55% below the EU average.
Luxembourg's wealth is partly due to the large number of people from neighbouring France, Germany and Belgium who work, but do not live in Luxembourg, therefore contributing to GDP but not being counted for the division of the wealth.
The Netherlands was the second richest country in the EU. Ireland was second richest in the EU after Luxembourg in 2007 with GDP per capita of 147, but fell to third place in 2008 and 2009 as the crisis of its banking sector and property market took its toll.
Wealth in Greece, struggling to regain market trust and competitiveness through austerity and reforms after years of overspending, declined sharply to 89 PPS in 2010 from 94 in 2008 and 2009.
