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Census of Agriculture 2020 - Preliminary Results

Farm Structure

Livestock and Land Utilisation - 1991 to 2020

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X-axis label	Cattle	Sheep	Pigs	Poultry
1991	6912	8888.2	1303.7	12052.8
2000	7037.4	7555	1722.1	13960.8
2010	6606.6	4745.4	1516.3	10924.8
2020	7314.5	5520.2	1582.5	16470.6

June livestock populations have increased for cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry from 2010 to 2020.
Poultry had the highest percentage increase with 16.5 million birds in 2020, a 50.8% increase on 2010. The poultry population has never been as large as in 2020.
The number of sheep rose by 775,000, an increase of 16.3% between 2010 and 2020.
The number of cattle increased by 10.7% from 6.6 million in 2010 to just over 7.3 million in 2020.
Between 2000 and 2010 the number of pigs decreased from 1.7 million to 1.5 million. This was followed by a 4.4% increase between 2010 and 2020; there were just below 1.6 million pigs in 2020.

Table 2.1 Principal totals, Censuses of Agriculture (1991 - 2020)

The total Agricultural Area Utilised (AAU) on farms in Ireland has been over 4.5 million hectares since 2010. There was a slight increase from 1991 to 2010 and AAU fell to 4,509,256 (-1.3%) in 2020.

Farm Structure in 2020

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Dublin Waterford

Largest average Agricultural Area Utilised

Darker red colours indicate counties that had larger average AAU, lighter red to white colours indicate counties that typically had smaller average AAU.
Border counties and counties in the West had lower AAU than counties in the south, midlands and east.
Dublin (47.3 hectares), Waterford (47.0 hectares) and Kilkenny (45.7 hectares) had larger average AAU than other counties.
Monaghan (23.2 hectares), Mayo (23.4 hectares) and Leitrim (25.5 hectares) had smaller average AAU than other counties.

Mayo Monaghan

Smallest average Agricultural Area Utilised

Table 2.2 Number of farms by region, county and farm size, 2020

Table 2.2 Number of farms by region, county and farm size, 2020
Region and County	Farm size (AAU) - hectares						Total	Mean AAU (hectares)	Median AAU (hectares)
Region and County	< 10	10 - 20	20 - 30	30 - 50	50 - 100	100 +	Total	Mean AAU (hectares)	Median AAU (hectares)
State	28,154	30,872	22,995	27,394	19,747	5,875	135,037	33.4	23.3

Northern and Western	13,656	16,433	10,650	10,513	5,023	1,013	57,288	25.8	19.0
Border	6,512	7,243	4,797	5,049	2,476	485	26,562	26.2	19.2
Cavan	1,094	1,395	944	1,096	528	54	5,111	26.2	20.7
Donegal	2,651	2,382	1,449	1,628	962	275	9,347	27.4	18.1
Leitrim	676	1,025	751	703	244	46	3,445	25.5	20.2
Monaghan	1,177	1,268	819	807	384	23	4,478	23.2	17.9
Sligo	914	1,173	834	815	358	87	4,181	27.1	20.0

West	7,144	9,190	5,853	5,464	2,547	528	30,726	25.5	18.8
Galway	2,984	3,658	2,446	2,263	1,112	254	12,717	26.5	19.0
Mayo	3,167	3,804	2,112	1,857	780	200	11,920	23.4	16.8
Roscommon	993	1,728	1,295	1,344	655	74	6,089	27.7	22.1

Southern	9,521	9,692	8,692	12,034	10,415	3,114	53,468	38.8	28.5
Mid-West	3,243	3,633	3,359	4,535	3,639	922	19,331	37.1	28.1
Clare	926	1,479	1,266	1,611	854	161	6,297	32.1	25.7
Limerick	1,034	1,045	986	1,237	1,052	276	5,630	36.2	27.1
Tipperary	1,283	1,109	1,107	1,687	1,733	485	7,404	42.2	32.0

South-East	2,288	1,801	1,706	2,495	2,923	1,013	12,226	43.9	32.2
Carlow	342	277	260	362	344	138	1,723	40.7	29.3
Kilkenny	574	495	470	757	979	298	3,573	45.7	36.2
Waterford	509	374	321	493	630	273	2,600	47.0	34.0
Wexford	863	655	655	883	970	304	4,330	41.8	29.9

South-West	3,990	4,258	3,627	5,004	3,853	1,179	21,911	37.3	27.2
Cork	2,406	2,390	2,155	3,238	2,752	763	13,704	38.7	29.5
Kerry	1,584	1,868	1,472	1,766	1,101	416	8,207	35.2	24.0

Eastern and Midland	4,977	4,747	3,653	4,847	4,309	1,748	24,281	39.4	26.4
Mid-East and Dublin	2,657	2,261	1,558	2,095	2,133	1,122	11,826	43.0	25.9
Dublin	188	145	65	105	116	80	699	47.3	22.0
Kildare	567	473	325	425	482	262	2,534	44.8	26.3
Louth	434	345	219	280	232	119	1,629	37.7	21.4
Meath	956	856	643	767	848	438	4,508	43.8	26.4
Wicklow	512	442	306	518	455	223	2,456	42.0	28.8

Midland	2,320	2,486	2,095	2,752	2,176	626	12,455	35.9	26.5
Laois	664	518	483	673	675	190	3,203	38.0	28.4
Longford	468	686	499	531	280	51	2,515	28.3	21.7
Offaly	589	603	553	784	593	178	3,300	37.5	27.9
Westmeath	599	679	560	764	628	207	3,437	38.1	27.7

Open in Excel: Census of Agriculture 2020 Table 2.2 (XLS 14KB)

Visit Table AVA24 on PxStat

Map 2.2 Percentage of Specialist Dairying by County

Map 2.3 Percentage of Specialist Beef Production by County

Map 2.4 Percentage of Specialist Sheep by county

Specialist Dairying - Map 2.2

In five counties in the Southern NUTS 2 region, more than one in every five farms was classified as Specialist Dairying. Those counties were: Cork (27.7%), Waterford (26.5%), Kilkenny (23.5%), Limerick (23.5%) and Tipperary (21.5%).
Most counties in the Northern and Western NUTS 2 region had fewer than 5% of farms classified as Specialist Dairying; exceptions were Cavan and Monaghan where more than 10% of farms were involved in Specialist Dairying.

Specialist Beef Production - Map 2.3

The prevalence of Specialist Beef Production varies from 27.5% of farms in Wicklow to 81.1% in Clare.
Fourteen counties had over half of farms classified as Specialist Beef Production.
Seven of these had at least two thirds of farms in the Specialist Beef Production category: Clare (81.1%), Longford (78.6%), Roscommon (71.7%), Cavan (68.3%), Westmeath (68.2%), Monaghan (67.1%) and Galway (66.5%).

Specialist Sheep - Map 2.4

Specialist Sheep farms were prominent in the Border, West, South-West and Mid-East NUTS 3 regions.
Donegal (44.9%), Wicklow (30.1%), Mayo (24.2%) and Kerry (20.4%) were the only counties with over 20% of farms classified as Specialist Sheep.

Table 2.3 Number of farms by region, county and farm type, 2020

Table 2.3 Number of farms by region, county and farm type, 2020
Region and County	Farm Type								Total
Region and County	Specialist tillage	Specialist dairying	Specialist beef production	Specialist sheep	Mixed grazing	Mixed crops and livestock	Mixed field crops	Other	Total
State	4,567	15,319	74,159	17,435	8,508	1,759	11,516	1,774	135,037

Northern and Western	199	2,199	34,180	11,198	4,483	168	4,188	673	57,288
Border	123	1,407	14,508	6,195	1,910	104	1,822	493	26,562
Cavan	..	550	3,493	404	238	..	298	122	5,111
Donegal	103	183	3,069	4,193	972	87	674	66	9,347
Leitrim	..	31	2,247	655	214	..	267	27	3,445
Monaghan	12	538	3,005	191	176	9	287	260	4,478
Sligo	..	105	2,694	752	310	..	296	18	4,181

West	76	792	19,672	5,003	2,573	64	2,366	180	30,726
Galway	55	436	8,451	1,531	1,121	51	1,000	72	12,717
Mayo	11	266	6,853	2,883	897	..	934	..	11,920
Roscommon	10	90	4,368	589	555	..	432	..	6,089

Southern	2,514	10,970	26,798	3,936	2,466	964	5,078	742	53,468
Mid-West	329	3,397	12,542	436	699	142	1,594	192	19,331
Clare	6	484	5,109	96	154	..	419	..	6,297
Limerick	14	1,321	3,455	64	198	..	472	..	5,630
Tipperary	309	1,592	3,978	276	347	126	703	73	7,404

South-East	1,386	2,428	4,497	1,000	726	589	1,354	246	12,226
Carlow	234	158	598	271	171	111	153	27	1,723
Kilkenny	222	841	1,610	171	168	98	407	56	3,573
Waterford	101	689	1,033	170	144	50	344	69	2,600
Wexford	829	740	1,256	388	243	330	450	94	4,330

South-West	799	5,145	9,759	2,500	1,041	233	2,130	304	21,911
Cork	745	3,801	5,857	826	530	202	1,509	234	13,704
Kerry	54	1,344	3,902	1,674	511	31	621	70	8,207

Eastern and Midland	1,854	2,150	13,181	2,301	1,559	627	2,250	359	24,281
Mid-East and Dublin	1,415	1,022	4,861	1,737	956	337	1,279	219	11,826
Dublin	177	25	199	115	37	14	107	25	699
Kildare	387	151	1,082	296	166	93	303	56	2,534
Louth	279	149	651	204	71	77	173	25	1,629
Meath	409	487	2,253	382	347	80	480	70	4,508
Wicklow	163	210	676	740	335	73	216	43	2,456

Midland	439	1,128	8,320	564	603	290	971	140	12,455
Laois	246	416	1,829	108	137	147	278	42	3,203
Longford	6	128	1,976	106	101	5	174	19	2,515
Offaly	125	317	2,171	144	151	96	260	36	3,300
Westmeath	62	267	2,344	206	214	42	259	43	3,437
.. Data suppressed for confidentiality reasons

Open in Excel: Census of Agriculture 2020 Table 2.3 (XLS 13KB)

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X-axis label	100 ha +	50 - 100 ha	30 - 50 ha	20 - 30 ha	10 - 20 ha	Less than 10 ha
Specialist Dairying	13.7	43.7	29.4	9.2	3.5	0.4
Mixed Crops and Livestock	16.3	32.6	27.3	13.2	8.1	2.4
Specialist Tillage	16.9	26	21	14.1	12.9	9.3
Mixed Grazing Livestock	7.2	23	28	16.5	15.9	9.5
Specialist Beef Production	1.5	9.7	20.8	20.9	28.2	18.9
Specialist Sheep	4.4	9.2	15.2	14.2	25	31.9
Other	2.3	8.7	11.3	9.6	15.6	52.6
Mixed Field Crops	1.6	3.7	6.8	9.8	23.5	54.5

In each of the three categories, Specialist Dairying, Mixed Crops and Livestock, and Specialist Tillage, more than 40% of farms were over 50 hectares. The proportion over 50 hectares was 57.5% for Specialist Dairying, 48.9% for Mixed Crops and Livestock, and 42.9% for Specialist Tillage.
In Specialist Tillage, a sixth of farms had over 100 hectares Agricultural Area Utilised.
In each of Specialist Beef Production and Specialist Sheep, more than 45% of farms were less than 20 hectares. The proportion under 20 hectares was 47.1% for Specialist Beef Production and 57.0% for Specialist Sheep.
Farms in the Mixed Field Crops and Other categories had the smallest average areas, with more than 50% of farms below 10 hectares in these two categories.

Table 2.4 Number of farms by farm type and farm size, 2020

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Table 2.1 Principal totals, Censuses of Agriculture (1991 - 2020)
	1991	2000	2010	2020	% Change 2010 - 2020
Total farms	170,578	141,527	139,860	135,037	-3.4
Total AAU (hectares)	4,441,755	4,443,071	4,568,938	4,509,256	-1.3
Mean farm size (hectares)	26.0	31.4	32.7	33.4	2.2
Median farm size (hectares)	17.4	22.7	24.0	23.3	-2.9
Total Cattle	6,911,975	7,037,435	6,606,585	7,314,543	10.7
Total Sheep	8,888,204	7,555,044	4,745,424	5,520,208	16.3
Total Pigs	1,303,695	1,722,108	1,516,291	1,582,548	4.4
Total Poultry	12,052,839	13,960,771	10,924,807	16,470,580	50.8

Census of Agriculture 2020 - Preliminary Results

Farm Structure

Livestock and Land Utilisation - 1991 to 2020

Farm Structure in 2020

Map 2.2 Percentage of Specialist Dairying by County

Map 2.3 Percentage of Specialist Beef Production by County

Map 2.4 Percentage of Specialist Sheep by county

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