Details on the sheep flocks in each county have been released by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
This is through the publishing of the national sheep and goat census that was carried out in December 2023.
Published this week, the census had responses from 41,592 herds, representing a response rate of 85%.
Of these 34,519 herds kept sheep, and 7,082 herds kept no sheep at the time of the census.
The average flock size in 2023 was 108, slightly lower than the average flock size of 113 in 2022.
Just seven counties had an above average flock size, with the remaining 19 counties all falling below the average flock size of 108 sheep.
A breakdown of the map can be seen in the table below:
County No. of flocks Avg. flock size Ewes Rams Other Total Carlow 795 121 65,857 2,107 28,613 96,577 Cavan 1,260 66 54,828 2,277 25,542 82,647 Clare 791 33 17,700 803 7,934 26,437 Cork 2,041 79 117,409 3,247 41,434 162,090 Donegal 6,854 77 363,632 11,705 151,321 526,658 Dublin 232 105 18,328 638 5,498 24,464 Galway 4,814 85 273,822 8,608 124,958 407,388 Kerry 2,760 120 246,920 6,296 78,077 331,293 Kildare 790 129 67,603 2,278 32,038 101,919 Kilkenny 556 106 37,813 1,360 19,693 58,866 Laois 540 77 26,690 928 13,761 41,379 Leitrim 1,382 90 90,303 2,959 30,814 124,076 Limerick 287 64 12,304 411 5,722 18,437 Longford 593 69 26,987 919 12,864 40,770 Louth 433 127 36,057 1,205 17,896 55,158 Mayo 5,595 80 325,041 9,889 109,900 444,830 Meath 1,252 118 96,886 3,920 46,361 147,167 Monaghan 731 65 27,877 1,456 18,435 47,768 Offaly 706 89 39,300 1,548 21,760 62,608 Roscommon 2,114 81 116,164 3,741 50,603 170,508 Sligo 1,899 76 106,140 3,538 35,141 144,819 Tipperary 1,106 99 69,421 2,211 38,186 109,818 Waterford 434 145 44,878 1,452 16,425 62,755 Westmeath 913 86 53,910 1,928 22,954 78,792 Wexford 1,278 103 76,453 2,559 52,719 131,731 Wicklow 1,436 156 150,055 4,773 68,992 223,799 Total 41,592 2,562,378 82,756 1,077,641 3,722,754
Wicklow was the county with the highest average flock size (156), while Clare was the lowest, with an average flock size of 33.
Donegal had the highest number of flocks in the country with 6,854, with Dublin recording the lowest flock numbers with just 232.
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 sheep recorded in the county, while Dublin had the lowest number (5,498).