The number of dairy cows in Ireland rose by 0.6% to over 1.49 million in the year to December 2025.

New figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the total number of cattle decreased by 24,200 to 6.28 million (-0.4%).

While the number of dairy cows rose, the number of other cows dropped by 2.2% to 750,600.

Sheep numbers increased by 98,000 (+2.7%) to over 3.68 million.

The number of breeding sheep rose by 25,400 (+1%) to 2.6 million, while the number of other sheep went up 72,600 (+7%) to 1.1 million.

The total number of pigs in the state was over 1.45 million in December 2025 with 50% in the southern region (729,000).

Livestock populations

The CSO has today (Tuesday, May 12) published figures on livestock populations for December 2025.

Commenting on the release, Stephanie Kelleher, statistician in the agriculture section of the CSO, said: "The livestock populations series presents estimates for livestock numbers (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats) in December of each year.

"For December 2025, these estimates are exclusively derived from administrative source data collections carried out by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine."

From 2025, the estimated number of pigs in the state is informed by the National Pig Census which is carried out by the department.

Regional

A regional analysis of the livestock numbers shows that the largest number of cattle (over 1.22 million) were in the mid-west region.

Cork is the county with the highest number of cattle at 915,300.

In terms of dairy cows, Cork (352,700) has more than either the northern and western region (179,000) or eastern and midland region (268,600).

CSO figures show the largest number of pigs was in the border region (330,700), while the smallest number of pigs was in the west region (35,500). 

The west region had the highest number of sheep (1.02 million) while the mid-west region had the lowest number of sheep (152,900).