22 October 2021
Go to release: Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 3 Travel, Agriculture, Environment and COVID-19
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (22 October 2021) published The Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 3 Travel, Agriculture, Environment and COVID-19.
This year the CSO has split the Yearbook into three parts to make it easier for people to find the information they are looking for. These three parts are: Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 1 People and Society published earlier this week on 20 October 2021; Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 2 Business and Economy published yesterday (21 October 2021); and Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 3 Travel, Agriculture, Environment and COVID-19, published today. Today’s section of the Yearbook also contains data supplied by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) which appears in a separate chapter. We would like to thank them for their cooperation.
Today’s Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021: Part 3 Travel, Agriculture, Environment and COVID-19 presents a comprehensive picture of life in Ireland under these themes. Many of these statistics in the Yearbook are based on information provided by the thousands of people around the country who have completed CSO surveys and we thank them for their input and look forward to the continued support of all our Household and Business Surveys. The CSO can compile such comprehensive reports…Because You Told Us.
Highlights
CSO surveys and analysis tell us that Tourism numbers almost collapsed in 2020. Even though 4.5 million overseas passengers arrived in Ireland and 4.5 million overseas passengers departed, this represented decreases of 77.9% and 78.0% respectively compared to 2019 when more than 20 million passengers both arrived and departed.
When it comes to Transport, Volkswagen (10,253) was the most popular make of new private cars licensed in 2020, followed by Toyota (9,475), Hyundai (7,227), Skoda (6,887) and Ford (6,493). Together these five makes represented almost half (48%) of all new private cars licensed.
While diesel cars remain the most popular, their dominance is decreasing. In 2016, 70% of new private cars were diesel, 28% were petrol and 2% were electric/hybrid. In 2020, 43% of new private cars were diesel, 37% were petrol and 20% were electric/hybrid.
This chapter also shows that Irish registered goods vehicles carried 141 million tonnes of goods on 11.8 million laden journeys in 2020, while Irish ports handled 51.4 million tonnes of goods in 2020, a fall of 4% compared with 2019.
The most popular destination to and from Ireland's main airports was London-Heathrow with 581,900 passengers travelling on this route. The majority of the top 10 routes were to the UK; London-Heathrow, London-Stansted, London-Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, London-Luton and Edinburgh.
The section on Agriculture tells us the total area farmed in 2020 was 4.5 million hectares. Crops, fruit and horticulture accounted for 8.0% of that area, silage for 26.6%, hay for 3.8%, pasture for 51.2% and rough grazing for 10.5%. The Crops and Livestock chapter notes the long-term decline in the area of wheat, oats and potatoes sown since 1850 to 2020. The total area sown of wheat, oats, barley and potatoes was 1,225,000 hectares in 1850. In the 170-year period since, this has decreased to 274,000 hectares.
In 2020, Co. Cork had the largest number of dairy cows at 390,900 head while Co. Leitrim had the smallest number of dairy cows at 1,900 head. We are significantly producing more butter. In 2013, 152,100 tonnes of butter was produced which rose by 74% to 264,700 tonnes in 2020.
In Agriculture Accounts and Prices, CSO regional analysis of agricultural income and expenditure for 2020 notes that the Mid-West was the largest producer of cattle in the State, accounting for 19.4% of national output and was the smallest producer of sheep, contributing just 4.2% to the national total. The South-West had the highest intermediate consumption costs and was the largest consumer of fertilisers, accounting for 20.7% of the national consumption of fertilisers. The Dublin & Mid-East region was the largest producer of horses and crops in the state. The value of this region’s agricultural output at basic prices fell by 0.9% to €1,136.9m, the only region to experience a drop in 2020.
When it comes to Agriculture Prices, milk prices were 9.6% higher in 2020 when compared with 2015, while cattle prices had dropped 7.4% over the same period.
Fertiliser and energy prices decreased by 10.5% and 8% respectively between 2019 and 2020. Compared to base year of 2015 fertilisers and energy were 18.7% and 2% respectively lower in 2020.
In the Monetary Environment Accounts chapter in the Environment section, we can see that in 2011, the percentage share of total environment taxes levied on industry was 10.2% while in 2020 it was 11.7%. Environment taxes levied on agriculture were €0.06 billion in 2011 and in 2020, representing a 1.4% share of total environment taxes in both years.
In 2019, 14% of environmental subsidies and transfers went to renewable energy production, 22% to biodiversity protection, 31% to wastewater management and 14% to heat and energy saving measures. Other activities, such as climate change mitigation and waste management, accounted for the remaining 20%
Fossil fuel subsidies were estimated at €2.4 billion in 2019, a 1% increase on 2018 while consumers of petrol in 2019 paid an average effective rate of €258.57 per tonne of carbon dioxide emitted while the rate on autodiesel was 29% lower at €183.47.
In the chapter on Physical Environment Accounts we can see that total greenhouse gas emissions by resident units of Ireland increased by 1.5% to 77.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent from 2017 to 2018. Also, in 2018 the Services sector, which includes road and air transport, produced 31% of greenhouse gas emissions by resident units, while the Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing sector produced 27% of emissions. The Industry sector accounted for 26% of the total in 2018, and the remaining 17% of greenhouse gas emissions were emitted by Households.
Environment Statistics tells us we used more water in 2018 than previous year, with the average monthly consumption per meter per day rising by 3.1% to 368 litres. The number of registered domestic waste-water treatment systems increased by 0.9% in 2020 to 475,990.
This chapter also tells us that fish landings by Irish trawlers in Irish and foreign ports decreased by 8.9% from 213,897 tonnes in 2018 to 194,956 tonnes in 2019.Landings by Irish vessels in Ireland dropped by 5.7% or 10,453 tonnes.
When it comes to Climate and Energy, the annual total for unleaded petrol volumes for 2020 was 773 million litres, a decrease of 58% on 2011 volumes, reflecting the impact of COVID-19; a change in the fuel type composition of licensed vehicles, and the move towards hybrid and electric vehicles.
Total networked gas consumption in 2020 was 57,953 gigawatt hours, an increase of 0.4% over 2019 consumption, and the highest consumption over the 2011-2020 period. Power plants accounted for 56% of total networked gas consumption in 2020, compared with 30% by the non-residential sector and 14% by the residential sector.
COVID-19 has touched every part of our lives. The CSO charted the impact of the virus on our society and the chapter in the Yearbook on COVID-19 reflects some of those impacts. In terms of Health statistics, the virus had the greatest impact on the older age groups, with 64% of all confirmed COVID-19 deaths to date in the 80 years old or older age group. The median age of those who lost their lives to the virus with underlying conditions is 84 and in terms of underlying conditions, chronic heart disease was present in 44% of deaths.
The way the virus moved through society changed over the various waves. The 25-44-year-old age group accounted for approximately a third of all cases towards the end of 2020. A different trend was noted amongst the over 80s age group, which accounted for 3% of cases in December 2020 compared with 20% in April of that year.
Women made up the majority of confirmed cases in 2020, accounting for 51% of cases in November and 52% of all cases in December.
Health care workers made up 7% of all confirmed cases in December and the CSO notes that the number of health care workers affected by the virus had been falling each month since April 2020 apart from a spike in November of 15%.
The effect of the pandemic on the Labour Market were very apparent in Q2 2020 as many of the public health measures were in force for the whole quarter. The number of absences from work was up by 325,700 or 228.1% from the same quarter in 2019 and this led to a fall of 17.5 million or 22.3% in the number of hours worked in the reference week.
While 83.5% of all those who had received at least one Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) had left the scheme by 29 August 2021, breaking the numbers down by sex shows that 84.2% of males had left the scheme compared to 82.6% of females. Those aged under 20 years were most likely to have left the PUP scheme (85.5%) while the oldest age group were least likely to have left the PUP scheme (78.6% for those aged 60 years).
When we look at the chapter on Society, we see as of February 2021 that the percentage of those reporting a high level of personal compliance with current government advice and guidelines regarding COVID-19 was highest in April 2020 (80.6%) and lowest in June of that year (59.9%).
In November 2020, respondents were asked about their worries, if any, of the impact of COVID-19 on their celebration of Christmas. Some 54.2% of those who responded to our survey were worried about being able to plan ahead, not knowing what restrictions would be in place and 74.5% were worried about not being able to mix with other households or see family or friends.
We can also see that household income, with COVID-19 income supports, fell by between 0.1% and 4.2% in the year to Q2 2020 for lower income households, but would have fallen between 18% and 30% without supports.
The pandemic had a dramatic effect on retail sales in Ireland, with the largest monthly decrease in the volume of retail sales (seasonally adjusted) recorded in April 2020 (-37.3%), while the highest monthly increase occurred in June 2020 (+36.6%) as seen in the Economy chapter.
The stark finding in our chapter on the Business Impact of COVID-19 on SMEs is that among responding enterprises, 56% reported closing at some point during the pandemic in 2020. The hardest hit sector within Services was the Accommodation & Food Service Activities sector where 90% of firms had to close at some point. Arts, Entertainment & Recreation and Other Service Activities sectors had 80% or more of responding enterprises closing at some point in 2020. More than three-quarters (78%) of Construction firms closed at some point.
In Business Signs of Life Series One: State Support, we learn that more than 100,000 enterprises had personnel in receipt of the Pandemic Employment Payment (PUP) in January 2021, the highest since June 2020. The percentage of enterprises with personnel availing of COVID-19 income support was 46.6% in January 2021. The uptake of such supports peaked in April at 57.2% compared to a low of 30.5% in September.
The virus also changed how we travelled. In Transport, rail was the mode of transport most severely hit since the onset of the crisis. In the week commencing 05 April 2020 the number of journeys undertaken by rail was 97% lower than it was in the first week of March of 2020.
The other parts of the Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2021:
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