Environmental Indicators Ireland 2021

Grassland accounted for 59.3% of total land use in Ireland in 2019, down from 61.9% in 1990. The area under forest increased from 6.8% in 1990 to 10.9% in 2019. Land under settlement was 1.8% in 2019.

Forestry accounted for 11.2% of Ireland’s total land area in 2020, the third lowest among EU Member States after Malta and the Netherlands. Finland had the highest proportion of land area under forest at 66.2% in 2020.

The area of agricultural land farmed organically in Ireland increased by 292% between 1997 and 2020, when it accounted for 73,200 hectares or 1.6% of the total agricultural land.

Land used for organic farming in Ireland accounted for 1.5% of total agricultural land in 2019 – the second lowest percentage among EU Member States.  Austria, with 24.6%, had the highest proportion of agricultural land farmed organically in the EU28 in 2019, and Malta the lowest at 0.5%.

Total fertiliser sales in Ireland fell from 1.8 million tonnes in 1981 to 994,000 tonnes in 2008. In 2019 it was 1.3 million tonnes.

Lime is the most commonly used fertiliser in the State. Sales fell from 1.3 million tonnes in 1981 to 763,000 tonnes in 2019.

The sale of nitrogen fertilisers in Ireland increased from 275,000 tonnes in 1981 to 370,000 tonnes in 2019.

Potassium fertiliser sales fell from 150,000 tonnes in 1981 to 115,000 tonnes in 2019.

Phosphorous fertiliser sales fell from 63,000 tonnes in 1981 to 43,000 tonnes in 2019.

Ireland had the sixth highest level of fertiliser sales among EU Member States in 2019 at 109 tonnes per 1,000 hectares of agricultural land. The Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union had the highest level of sales in 2019 at 173 tonnes per 1,000 hectares of agricultural land and Portugal had the lowest at 28 tonnes.

Cattle numbers in Ireland during 1980 to 2020 fluctuated between 6.5 million in 1988 and 7.6 million in 1998. The 2020 figure was 7.3 million, slightly up on the 2019 figure of 7.2 million.

Sheep numbers have fluctuated more widely. In 1980 there were 3.3 million sheep in Ireland. This number peaked in 1992 at 8.9 million. In 2020 there were 5.5 million sheep in the State, up by 7.5% from 2019.

Pig numbers increased from 1.0 million in 1980 to a peak of 1.8 million in 1998. In 2020 there were 1.6 million pigs in the State, up slightly on 2019.

In December 2020 Ireland had the fourth highest number of cattle in the EU27, with 8.5% of the total. France had the highest proportion of cattle numbers, with 23.3% of the EU total.

Ireland had 6.1% of the total sheep population in the EU27 in December 2019, compared with Spain which had the highest proportion of sheep numbers at 24.8% of the total.

Ireland had 1.1% of the total pig population in the EU27 in December 2020. Spain had the highest proportion of pig numbers in the EU with 22.4% of the total.

The number of new dwelling completions in Ireland declined by 34.6% from 6,994 units in 2011 to 4,575 units in 2013. By 2020 the figure had increased to 20,535 down 2.6% on the 2019 figure of 21,075. In 2020, 57% of these units were part of housing schemes, 24% were single houses and 19% were apartments.