Cattle numbers — Cork
1,025,900, latest 2025 (-4.8% year on year).
1,025,900 head of cattle were counted. Dairy cows accounted for the largest share (379,200, 37%). Next largest was Cattle: under 1 year (283,300). The largest year-on-year movement was Cattle: 2 years and over, 11% lower (65,200).
Before you use these figures
- Unusually high compared with other areas: This figure is unusually high compared with other areas currently publishing this dataset — 379,200 against a typical figure (median) of about 35,000 across 25 other areas. Worth checking against the source before treating it as a straightforward comparison.
- Unusually high in 2015: This area's 2015 figure is unusually high compared with other areas' own 2015 figures — 339,500 against a typical figure (median) of about 25,600 across 25 other areas that period. No longer this dataset's latest period, so the check below would not catch it on its own. Worth checking against the source before treating it as a straightforward trend.
- Dublin's herd is small enough that percentages swing hard: Dublin has by far the smallest cattle population of any county -- its bull count, for example, is typically only 100-200 head. A change of a few dozen animals there can read as a large percentage move that would be unremarkable anywhere else.
- Counted where the animal was, not where it was born or will be sold: An animal is attributed to the county of the holding it was on on 1 June. Young stock destined for finishing or export elsewhere is still counted at its current holding, so a county's figure describes what was standing in its fields that day, not local breeding or sales activity on its own.
- From the national cattle register, not a sample survey: CSO's own background notes say cattle figures are extracted from AIMS, the Animal Identification and Movement System -- the administrative register every animal's passport and ear tag feed -- as at 1 June each year. Unlike some other measures in the same release, this is close to a full administrative count, not a sample estimate.
- A snapshot on 1 June, not a year-round figure: Cattle numbers move throughout the year as calves are born and animals are moved, finished or exported. This is a single day's count, so only comparisons against the same date a year earlier are meaningful -- there is no month-to-month reading to make.