Counting our chickens...

IRELAND’S rising population may be cause for rejoicing but we are still way behind in the breeding stakes compared to our four-legged friends.

The total population now stands at 3.9 million, the highest since 1871, yet we are still far outnumbered by domestic animals in Ireland. There are almost seven million cattle in the country and the number of sheep, at 4.8 million, is also far higher. If poultry ever make a bid to rule the human roost, there are more than 13 million of them to lead the charge.

Statistics like this are the stuff of pub quizzes and board games and they can be found in the weighty and wordy Statistical Yearbook of Ireland 2003, published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office.