There’s almost twice as many cows in Kerry as people.
That’s according the Central Statistics Office livestock populations report for December 2025.
The CSO figures show, as of the end of December 2025, the total number of cattle in Kerry was 283,900.
According to Census 2022, the population of the county was just under 156,500 people.
Based on these figures, it shows that there is 1.81 cows per person in the Kingdom.
The report shows of the cows in Kerry at the end of December, over 30% were dairy cattle (87,300).
There are 2,200 bulls in Kerry, while 58,400 bullocks were recorded.
36,000 cattle in the county are listed as “other cows”, which includes calves.
Nationally, in the twelve months to December, the number of cattle decreased slightly (0.4%), dairy cows rose by 0.6%, while the number of sheep increased by 2.7%.
Meanwhile, the total number of pigs in the state in December 2025 was 1,459,500, with 50% of these located in the Southern Region.
