Monaghan best county in Ireland for athletics membership

Monaghan have the highest membership of athlete’s per county capita in the country.

With 1,358 members of Monaghan clubs, Monaghan top the charts. This results in 2.09% of the county being members of Athletics Ireland.

Athletics Ireland (AI) are fourth biggest sporting body by membership in the country. Behind the GAA, the FAI and the IRFU.

AI had 70,780 members at the end of 2022. Monaghan have the most amount of members per capita. Meath are in second place with 2.02%

Cavan are in 25^th place with 0.90% of the county as members. Just 728 people where members of Cavan athletic clubs in 2022.

Unsurprisingly Dublin is the county with most club members with 11,100. This equates to 0.76% of the county’s population, leaving Dublin 27^th of 32 counties.

The report shows an interesting tend with three counties in the north-east in the top five. Monaghan, Meath, Mayo, Offaly and Louth make up the top five.

While Leitrim and Sligo take up places six and seven. Therefore, three Connacht counties make the top-10.

Clare and Cork are the only Munster Counties in the top-10. Leinster accounts for four of the top-10.

Fourth biggest sport in the country by members

The AI moved into fourth place in 2015 and planned to have 70,000 members by 2020. As with all other bodies this figure was hammered by the covid-19 pandemic.

While Ireland compete internationally on a 32-county basis, Northern Ireland athletics governs the sport (NIAF) in the six counties. Northern Ireland athletes have an option to compete for either Ireland or Great Britain internationally.

While NIAF is affiliated to GB athletics, NIAF has a membership agreement with Athletics Ireland.

As such the five counties with the lowest membership per captia are Tyrone, Antrim, Armagh, Down and Derry.

Athletics Ireland has 360 registered clubs across the country. While AI targeted 380 affiliated clubs by 2024, they have stated they are behind this target.

Athletics Ireland membership per county

Place	County	Registrations	Population	% of Capita
1	Monaghan	1358	64832	2.09
2	Meath	4449	220296	2.02
3	Mayo	2700	137231	1.97
4	Offaly	1623	82668	1.96
5	Louth	2646	139100	1.90
6	Leitrim	649	35087	1.85
7	Sligo	1200	69819	1.72
8	Clare	2101	127419	1.65
9	Kilkenny	1713	103985	1.65
10	Cork	8530	581231	1.47
11	Tipperary	2393	167661	1.43
12	Galway	3822	276451	1.38
13	Waterford	1677	127085	1.32
14	Donegal	2165	166321	1.30
15	Wexford	2005	163527	1.23
16	Kildare	3008	246977	1.22
17	Laois	1106	91657	1.21
18	Fermanagh	726	61170	1.19
19	Kerry	1816	155258	1.17
20	Wicklow	1775	155485	1.14
21	Carlow	706	61931	1.14
22	Westmeath	1088	95840	1.14
23	Roscommon	782	69995	1.12
24	Longford	464	46634	0.99
25	Cavan	728	81201	0.90
26	Limerick	1646	205444	0.80
27	Dublin	11100	1450701	0.77
28	Tyrone	935	179000	0.52
29	Antrim	3035	618108	0.49
30	Armagh	644	194391	0.33
31	Down	1508	531665	0.28
32	Derry	682	247132	0.28