Map: How many sheep are in each county?
Details on the number of sheep in each county have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
This was through the publishing of the national sheep and goat census that was carried out in December 2023 and had responses from 41,592 herds, representing a response rate of 85%.
A breakdown of the locations of the 3,722,754 sheep in the country can be seen in the map below:
Donegal was the county with the highest number of sheep (526,658), accounting for approximately 14.15% of the sheep in the Republic of Ireland.
Dublin has the lowest number of sheep in the country, numbering just 18,437, which is 0.5% of the sheep recorded in the census.
A breakdown of the map can be seen in the table below:
| County | Ewes | Rams | Other | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carlow | 65,857 | 2,107 | 28,613 | 96,577 |
| Cavan | 54,828 | 2,277 | 25,542 | 82,647 |
| Clare | 17,700 | 803 | 7,934 | 26,437 |
| Cork | 117,409 | 3,247 | 41,434 | 162,090 |
| Donegal | 363,632 | 11,705 | 151,321 | 526,658 |
| Dublin | 18,328 | 638 | 5,498 | 24,464 |
| Galway | 273,822 | 8,608 | 124,958 | 407,388 |
| Kerry | 246,920 | 6,296 | 78,077 | 331,293 |
| Kildare | 67,603 | 2,278 | 32,038 | 101,919 |
| Kilkenny | 37,813 | 1,360 | 19,693 | 58,866 |
| Laois | 26,690 | 928 | 13,761 | 41,379 |
| Leitrim | 90,303 | 2,959 | 30,814 | 124,076 |
| Limerick | 12,304 | 411 | 5,722 | 18,437 |
| Longford | 26,987 | 919 | 12,864 | 40,770 |
| Louth | 36,057 | 1,205 | 17,896 | 55,158 |
| Mayo | 325,041 | 9,889 | 109,900 | 444,830 |
| Meath | 96,886 | 3,920 | 46,361 | 147,167 |
| Monaghan | 27,877 | 1,456 | 18,435 | 47,768 |
| Offaly | 39,300 | 1,548 | 21,760 | 62,608 |
| Roscommon | 116,164 | 3,741 | 50,603 | 170,508 |
| Sligo | 106,140 | 3,538 | 35,141 | 144,819 |
| Tipperary | 69,421 | 2,211 | 38,186 | 109,818 |
| Waterford | 44,878 | 1,452 | 16,425 | 62,755 |
| Westmeath | 53,910 | 1,928 | 22,954 | 78,792 |
| Wexford | 74,453 | 2,559 | 52,719 | 131,731 |
| Wicklow | 150,055 | 4,773 | 68,992 | 223,799 |
| Total | 2,562,378 | 82,756 | 1,077,641 | 3,722,754 |
The county with the fewest rams was Limerick with 411, while the highest number of rams was found in Donegal, with 11,705.
Limerick also had the fewest ewes in the country (12,304), with Donegal recording the most ewes (363,632).
In the other sheep category (including lambs, wethers, cull ewes), Donegal remained in the top spot with 151,321 recorded in the county, while Dublin had the lowest number (5,498).
