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26 May 2022
Go to release: Census of Agriculture 2020 Detailed Results
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (26 May 2022) launched the Detailed Results of the 2020 Census of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture presents a comprehensive picture of agricultural activity in Ireland.
Commenting on the results, Sophie Emerson, Statistician in the Agriculture Division, said: “The Census of Agriculture provides a snapshot of the agricultural activity on Irish farms in 2020. This census of farming is taken every 10 years and it includes statistics on farm structure, farmer demographics, livestock and land utilisation on farms. Preliminary results of this census were published in December:
https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/ep/p-coa/censusofagriculture2020-preliminaryresults/.
The results released today provide detail on the following categories of Irish agriculture; Organic Farming, the Agriculture Labour Force, Animal Housing and Manure Management, and Standard Output. In addition, selected statistics are now available at electoral division level.
Organic area utilised (AAU) accounted for 73,800 hectares of the 4.5 million hectares in the state, or 1.6% of the total AAU. The majority of organic AAU in 2020 was grassland (96% of organic AAU), while the remainder of organic AAU consisted mainly of cereals.
There were 51,685 organic cattle, 74,870 organic sheep, and 161,471 organic poultry on Irish farms in 2020.
For cattle and pigs, the most common type of housing used was classified as ‘Loose Cubicle – solid floor’. The most common type of housing used for poultry was classified as ‘Cages with manure belts’.
Selected statistics are now available at electoral district level. This data can be found on the CSO’s open data portal, Pxstat. Available statistics at this level include the number of agricultural holdings, average size of holdings, livestock numbers, age of holders and land utilisation. A new interactive application has been launched by the CSO which allows users to explore the data at electoral division level. This tool will allow users to access data on livestock, land utilisation, number of agriculture holdings and information on age of holders in specific electoral divisions. The tool is highly interactive and displays the data in engaging visualisations. This application will be found here: Agrimaps”
Highlights for Editors:
Organic Farming
Agricultural Labour Input
Animal Housing and Manure Management
Standard Output
Sophie Emerson continued: “The CSO would like to extend its appreciation to farmers for responding to this Census and other Agricultural Surveys.
This publication builds on the preliminary results that were published last December 2021 which were collected as part of a European wide data collection exercise to enable the compilation comparable statistics on the structure of agriculture across the EU in 2020.”
Sophie Emerson (+353) 21 453 5099 or Carmel Hinchion (+353) 21 453 5272
or email agri@cso.ie
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