Census of Agriculture 2010

“Taking Stock”- Census of Agriculture 2010 Final Results

The CSO today published the final results of the Census of Agriculture 2010 which was conducted in June 2010. These results give a comprehensive overview of agricultural activity in Ireland in 2010 

The purpose of the Census was to collect detailed information on the structure of agricultural holdings in Ireland. Topics covered include number of farms, area farmed, area under each crop, numbers of livestock and details of the farm workforce.

The key results show

• There were 139,860 farm holdings in operation in Ireland in June 2010.

• The total area of land, excluding commonage, used for agricultural production amounted to just under 4.6 million hectares in 2010 with an average size holding of 32.7 hectares.

• Specialist Beef Production continues to be the most common farm type, accounting for over half of all farms in 2010.

• Average Standard Output in 2010 was €30,726, ranging from €20,227 in the BMW region to more than twice that amount in the SE region (€42,482).

• There was a total of 6.6 million cattle in the State in June 2010, down from just over 7 million in 2000 (-6.1%).

• The total number of sheep fell from 6.8 million in 2000 to just 4.7 million in 2010, a decrease of one third.

• More than half of all farm holders were aged 55 years or more. The number of farmers aged under 35 fell by 53% since 2000.

• In 2010, there were 272,000 family and regular non-family workers engaged in farming, an increase of 5.5% on the 2000 total of 258,000 workers.

• One in eight (12.4%) farms is owned by a female.

• More than half (75,223) of all farm holders described farmwork as their sole occupation in 2010.

Census of Agriculture 2010 - Interactive Mapping Tool (AGRIMAP)

The CSO today launched a selection of Census of Agriculture 2010 data on AGRIMAP, an interactive mapping tool providing data at detailed geographical levels such as electoral district (ED), rural district (RD), county and province.

There are five tables of data available for each layer of geography covering 3,003 electoral districts, 156 rural districts, 27 counties and 4 provinces depending on the preferred option of the user.

The tables currently available are

• Number of farms classified by farm size (AAU)

• Area farmed and area under selected crops

• Number of selected livestock

• Farm labour input by number of persons and Annual Work Units

• Number of family farms by age of holder

These can be viewed at:

http://census.cso.ie/agrimap/

The CSO plans to add additional data for Census of Agriculture (COA) 2010, as well as COA data for 2000 and 1991, to this resource in early 2013.

For copies of the publication contact:

Central Statistics Office, Information Section, Skehard Road, Cork. Tel: 021-4535011

Price: €10 (Copies can also be downloaded free of charge from the CSO website-see link below)

For further information contact:

Fiona O'Callaghan on 021 453 5705, Hilda McCarthy on 021 453 5084

E-mail: agriculture@cso.ie

Internet: Census of Agriculture 2010 - Final Results Complete Edition (PDF 21,136KB)   

Central Statistics Office                                                                07 December 2012

– ENDS –