The Irish Padel Court Density League 2026: Every County in the Republic Ranked

Updated 24 October 2026 · Openplay Research · Data from our verified national court tracker + CSO Census 2022. Every venue's court count individually verified against its own booking system, planning record or published information. Free to cite with attribution and a link to this page.

Which county in the Republic of Ireland is best served for padel? We divided the number of open, bookable padel courts (individual courts, not venues) in each of the 26 counties by its Census 2022 population. The results upend most assumptions — the padel capital of the Republic isn't Dublin, Cork or Galway.

The numbers at a glance: our tracker follows 164 locations across the island of Ireland → 98 venues are open today with 350 courts between them → of those, 73 venues with 234 courts are in the Republic. This page ranks the Republic.

Updated 24 October 2026. No county changes rank, and open courts are unchanged. We added 16 schemes with planning permission granted to our tracker from council records, and moved two Padel 100 sites whose planning applications were withdrawn (the Radisson Blu in Sligo and Nenagh) to unconfirmed. The pipeline column changes in ten counties: Dublin 15 → 21, Cork 11 → 19, Waterford 14 → 19, Mayo 8 → 11, Galway 2 → 10, Limerick 3 → 9, Meath 2 → 8, Kerry 1 → 3, Tipperary 4 → 2 and Sligo 3 → 0. Earlier this autumn: Meath and Sligo came off zero (21 September); Monaghan, Clare, Kildare and Dublin moved up (27 September); Westmeath and Waterford rose to 2nd and 3rd (2 October); and Cork rose from 20th to 16th when Ballyhass Padel near Mallow opened (16 October).
Corrections, 25 August 2026. A full audit of the tracker this month produced four changes to the table, three of which move rankings:
  • Clare was listed with zero open courts. That was wrong. Banner Padel Ennis is open with six indoor courts and is selling memberships. Clare enters the table in joint 7th on 4.7 courts per 100,000 — and is no longer one of the counties with nothing open.
  • Monaghan was over-counted. We had four open courts across two venues; Padel 100 at Monaghan United FC is not yet open. Monaghan has one open court and falls from 3rd to 19th.
  • Kildare was over-counted. PadelZone Celbridge has five courts, not eight. Kildare falls from 8th to 13th.
  • Dublin is 61 open courts, not 62. We could not independently verify padel at West Wood Club Westmanstown — the club's own padel page returns a 404 and West Wood directs members to Leopardstown — so it has been removed from the count pending confirmation.

Venues we cannot independently verify are now excluded from every figure on this page. Ten such venues, holding 40 courts between them, sit outside these counts.

Earlier correction, 6 August 2026: when first published in July, this article stated that Leitrim was the only county in Ireland with no padel court open, in build or in planning. That was wrong — there are three live padel planning applications in Leitrim. The table was corrected then and Leitrim's pipeline is shown below.

Key findings

  • Limerick is the padel capital of the Republic, and it is not close. 11.5 courts per 100,000 people: 24 courts across five venues, after Padel Tennis Ireland opened eight full-size courts at Garryowen FC in late July. That is more than two and a half times the national average and well clear of second place.
  • Westmeath is now second on 8.3 per 100k: eight courts across three venues for 96,000 people. Planet Padel Athlone has three indoor courts, Padel 100 at Kinnegad GAA two outdoor, and Project Padel Mullingar three, added to our tracker on 2 October.
  • Waterford is third on 7.9 per 100k. Park Padel at Waterpark RFC opened four outdoor courts at the start of October, taking the county to 10 courts across three venues for 127,000 people.
  • Laois is fourth — 6.5 per 100k. A county of 91,000 people with six open courts across three venues.
  • Monaghan is fifth on 6.1 per 100k — up from 21st in September, now that Padel 100's three outdoor courts at Monaghan United FC are bookable alongside WePadel. Four courts for a county of 65,000 people.
  • Louth and Sligo share sixth at 5.7 per 100k — Louth with eight courts across three venues including District 4's four-court indoor club in Dundalk; Sligo with a single four-court Let's Go Padel venue that opened in August.
  • One venue can move a county a long way. Indoor Padel Ireland's six courts in Navan took Meath from nothing to 2.7 per 100k — 20th today — in a single opening. Clare shows the same effect: Banner Padel's move from three bookable courts to six took the county from 20th to joint 11th (4.7); it is 12th today.
  • Dublin ranks joint 9th of 26. Its 75 open courts across 24 venues are by far the country's most — but divided by 1.46 million people that is 5.1 per 100k, not far above the national average. That includes West Wood Leopardstown's eight indoor courts, which only members can book. Dublin's pipeline, at 21 courts, is the largest in the Republic. Today, the capital is where demand outstrips supply the most.
  • Cork ranks 16th at 3.3 per 100k, up from 20th after Ballyhass Padel near Mallow opened four outdoor courts, with 19 pipeline courts, including the consented six-court club at St Patrick's Woollen Mills in Douglas and five indoor courts granted at Mallow GAA.
  • The national average is 4.54 courts per 100k — 234 open courts across 73 venues, for 5.15 million people (Census 2022).
  • Three counties still have zero open courts — Leitrim, Offaly and Roscommon. Leitrim has two applications lodged and Roscommon a Padel 100 site coming at Athlone; Offaly has nothing verified.
  • For scale: Spain has roughly 35.5 courts per 100k — eight times the Republic's density — while Britain has ~2.2. Ireland is already ahead of Britain per head, with years of runway left. See the international benchmark.

The league table — Republic of Ireland

# County Open courts Venues Courts per 100k Pipeline courts
1 Limerick 24 5 11.5 9
2 Westmeath 8 3 8.3 0
3 Waterford 10 3 7.9 19
4 Laois 6 3 6.5 0
5 Monaghan 4 2 6.1 0
6= Louth 8 3 5.7 0
6= Sligo 4 1 5.7 0
8 Wexford 9 4 5.5 4
9= Dublin 75 24 5.1 21
9= Wicklow 8 3 5.1 0
11 Kildare 12 3 4.8 12
12 Clare 6 1 4.7 3
13 Kerry 7 2 4.5 3
14 Longford 2 1 4.3 0
15 Donegal 7 2 4.2 0
16 Cork 19 4 3.3 19
17 Carlow 2 1 3.2 0
18= Mayo 4 1 2.9 11
18= Galway 8 3 2.9 10
20 Meath 6 1 2.7 8
21 Cavan 2 1 2.4 0
22 Tipperary 2 1 1.2 2
23 Kilkenny 1 1 1.0 13
24= Leitrim 0 0 0 4
24= Offaly 0 0 0 0
24= Roscommon 0 0 0 2

The chasing pack

The pipeline column is where the next 12 months get decided. Dublin (21 pipeline courts), Cork and Waterford (19 each) are building fastest in absolute terms; Kilkenny (13 pipeline against 1 open) is the county about to jump furthest — the six-court Padel Hub at Cillin Hill and Arena Padel's six at Gowran Park would take it from 23rd to the top of the table on today's figures. Kildare's 12 are dominated by a single project, the approved nine-court Arena Padel centre at Greenhill backed by former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given. Offaly is now the only county in the Republic with no open court and nothing verified in the pipeline.

North of the border, for context: our island-wide tracker also covers Northern Ireland, where density is higher again — Derry alone has 24 open courts (9.5 per 100k on NISRA Census 2021 figures), and NI accounts for 116 of the island's 350 open courts on six counties.

Methodology & sources

Court counts: Openplay's national padel court tracker — 164 tracked locations across the island; venue statuses and per-venue court counts individually verified against operator booking systems, planning authority records, venue announcements and local press, September–October 2026. "Open courts" = individual courts — doubles and singles courts both counted — at venues currently operating; counts include private members' clubs, so not every court is publicly bookable. Venues we cannot independently verify are excluded from all figures on this page — 12 venues holding 45 courts currently sit in that category. "Pipeline" = courts at venues in build, with planning granted, or with a live planning application lodged; unverified venues are excluded from pipeline figures too. Pipeline projects can and do change, and applications can be refused or withdrawn. County classification follows traditional counties; Dublin combines its four local authorities, and Cork, Galway and Limerick combine city and county. Population: CSO Census 2022, table FY003B — data.cso.ie/table/FY003B. Northern Ireland context figures: NISRA Census 2021 — nisra.gov.uk. International comparisons: Spain ~17,300 courts, FIP World Padel Report 2025, Dec 2025 — padelfip.com (population: World Bank 2024); Britain 1,553 courts, LTA, April 2026 — ltapadel.org.uk. Per-100k figures are indicative — court-count methodologies differ between countries.

Spotted an error or a court we're missing? Tell us — corrections are made within days, and published openly when we get something wrong. © Openplay Research 2026 — free to cite with attribution and a link to this page.

Explore more: the live court map · the international benchmark · the Irish Padel Price Index · the planning register · State of Padel in Ireland 2026.