The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has released the results of the 2023 Farm Structure Survey, which provides an insight into farm size across the country, according to data collected last year.
The wide-ranging survey – which includes data on farm demographics, land utilisation, and output, among many other areas – is carried out in years ending in three or six, with results published the following year.
The data on farm size is based on utilised agricultural area (UAA), and shows that Co. Wicklow had the largest average farm size in 2023, at 51.5ha. It is the only county to have had an average farm size in excess of 50ha.
Farms in Co. Monaghan were the smallest, reporting an average farm size of 22.4ha.
The data shows that nationwide, the average farm size in 2023 was 34.7ha. The total number of farms was 133,174.
The data also groups these farms together in different bands of farm size, as follows:
Less than 10ha 10ha-20ha 20ha-30ha 30ha-50ha 50ha-100ha Over 100ha 34,410 28,994 20,024 23,480 18,845 7,421
The data is presented according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), which is an EU-wide system for geographically breaking down statistics across a country.
This system groups Irish counties together in national divisions, followed by sub-divisions, as follows:
- Northern and Western:
- Border (counties Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan and Sligo);
- West (counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon);
- Southern:
- Mid-West (counties Clare, Limerick and Tipperary);
- South-East (counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford);
- South-West (counties Cork and Kerry);
- Eastern and Midlands:
- Mid-East and Dublin (counties Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Meath and Wicklow);
- Midlands (counties Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath).
In the NUTS system Dublin is technically considered a sub-division above the county level, but for the purposes of the Farm Structure Survey is considered a county under the Mid-East sub-division.
Delving into the data on a regional basis, in the Northern and Western region, farms in Donegal were the largest on average, at 32.1ha, while, Monaghan farms were the smallest not just in this region but nationwide, at 22.4ha.
The below table shows the average farm size, and number of farms by size, in each county in the region:
County Average farm size Less than 10ha 10ha-20ha 20ha-30ha 30ha-50ha 50ha-100ha Over 100ha Total farms Cavan 25.3ha 1,388 1,353 845 907 491 85 5,069 Donegal 32.1ha 3,102 2,063 1,241 1,420 1,005 502 9,333 Leitrim 26.9ha 961 939 615 573 273 97 3,458 Monag-han 22.4ha 1,344 1,203 748 727 363 35 4,420 Sligo 27.7ha 1,176 1,110 684 638 356 122 4,086 Galway 29.9ha 3,587 3,364 2,067 2,002 1,092 475 12,587 Mayo 29.7ha 3,830 3,285 1,798 1,476 806 475 11,670 Roscom-mon 24ha 1,505 1,740 1,103 1,019 517 63 5,947
Looking at the southern region, the farms tended to be larger than in the Northern and Western region. Here, Co. Waterford had the largest farms, at 49.6ha on average, with counties Tipperary, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Kerry also seeing average farm sizes in excess of 40ha.
In the same region, Co. Clare recorded the smallest farm size, at 31.5ha. Notably though, the average farm size in Co. Clare was larger than any county in the Northern and Western region with the exception of Donegal.
County Average farm size Less than 10ha 10ha-20ha 20ha-30ha 30ha-50ha 50ha-100ha Over 100ha Total farms Clare 31.5ha 1,321 1,449 1,098 1,359 799 225 6,251 Limerick 35.8ha 1,275 986 893 1,053 990 298 5,495 Tippera-ry 42.8ha 1,559 1,137 980 1,427 1,611 575 7,289 Carlow 38.9ha 413 304 210 351 333 124 1,735 Kilkenny 44.8ha 669 488 438 699 870 315 3,479 Waterfo-rd 49.6ha 597 359 293 438 582 320 2,589 Wexford 41.3ha 952 686 577 792 927 327 4,261 Cork 39.6ha 2,824 2,273 1,882 2,866 2,681 958 13,484 Kerry 41.7ha 1,762 1,652 1,229 1,562 1,200 626 8,031
Moving on to the Eastern and Midland region, the county with the largest farm size in the region and nationwide was Co. Wicklow, at 51.5ha on average.
Dublin had the second-largest farm size in the region, at 46.8ha (and had the fewest number of farms of any county, at 680). Counties Kildare and Meath also saw farm sizes above 40ha.
The county in this region with the smallest farms on average was Longford, at 23.1ha, the only farm in the region with an average farm size below 30ha.
County Average farm size Less than 10ha 10ha-20ha 20ha-30ha 30ha-50ha 50ha-100ha Over 100ha Total farms Dublin 46.8ha 211 130 57 91 103 88 680 Kildare 43.2ha 683 456 292 388 484 277 2,580 Louth 37.3ha 506 292 197 235 234 127 1,591 Meath 41.4ha 1,088 848 586 707 797 412 4,438 Wicklow 51.5ha 539 402 298 434 426 273 2,372 Laois 37.3ha 739 513 472 620 619 200 3,163 Longford 23.1ha 820 668 377 359 222 39 2,485 Offaly 35.3ha 745 605 517 678 524 190 3,259 Westm-eath 35ha 814 689 527 659 540 193 3,422
In terms of farm type, over half of all farms were classified as specialist beef production (56.1%). Specialist sheep (13.1%) and specialist dairying (11.4%) were the next highest categories.
Almost two thirds (65%) of specialist sheep farms were in the Northern and Western region, while more than two thirds (71%) of specialist dairy farms were in the Southern region.
Around six in 10 specialist tillage farms were split across the South-East and Mid-East (including Dublin) statistical regions.
Specialist dairy farms were the largest type of farm in 2023, with an average size of 70.2ha. These farms also had the highest proportion of farms that were over 100ha, with 17.3% of them exceeding that size.
More than 40% of farms were over 50ha in the following types: specialist dairy; mixed crops and livestock; and specialist tillage.
Farms in the mixed field crops category had the smallest areas on average (except for farms included in the ‘other’ category), at 17.1ha.