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

Updated 6 August 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 150 locations across the island of Ireland → 88 venues are open today with 305 courts between them → of those, 65 venues with 194 courts are in the Republic. This page ranks the Republic.

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 — two at Dromahair Community Park (lodged April 2026, i.e. before we published) and one for two courts at Leitrim Gaels GAA in Leitrim Village (lodged 9 July, decision due 2 September). Leitrim still has no court open today, but it is not a county where nothing is happening, and we should have found those applications. The table below has been corrected. We also added seven newly verified open venues this month — including eight courts at Padel Tennis Ireland Limerick — which changed several rankings.

Key findings

  • Limerick is the padel capital of the Republic — and it just extended its lead. 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 three times the national average and the widest gap between first and second since we began measuring.
  • Laois is the new number two — 6.5 per 100k. A county of 91,000 people now has six open courts across three venues after Padel at Pollys opened at the Abbeyleix Manor Hotel.
  • Monaghan holds third at 6.1 per 100k — a county of 65,000 people with four open courts.
  • Dublin ranks 12th of 26. Its 62 open courts are by far the country's most — but divided by 1.46 million people that's 4.3 per 100k, barely above the national average. Dublin's 24-court pipeline is the biggest in Ireland; today, the capital is where demand outstrips supply the most.
  • Cork ranks 17th at 2.6 per 100k — but with 29 pipeline courts it has the largest build programme outside Dublin.
  • The national average is 3.8 courts per 100k — 194 open courts across 65 venues, for 5.15 million people (Census 2022).
  • Six counties still have zero open courts — Clare, Leitrim, Meath, Offaly, Roscommon and Sligo. All six now have courts in build, granted or applied for.
  • For scale: Spain has roughly 35.5 courts per 100k — nine times the Republic's density — while Britain has ~2.2. Ireland is already ahead of Britain per head, with years of runway left.

The league table — Republic of Ireland

# County Open courts Venues Courts per 100k Pipeline courts
1 Limerick 24 5 11.5 3
2 Laois 6 3 6.5 0
3 Monaghan 4 2 6.1 2
4 Louth 8 3 5.7 0
5 Wexford 9 4 5.5 6
6 Westmeath 5 2 5.2 2
7 Wicklow 8 3 5.1 0
8 Kildare 12 3 4.8 12
9 Waterford 6 2 4.7 14
10 Kerry 7 2 4.5 1
11 Longford 2 1 4.3 0
12 Dublin 62 22 4.3 24
13 Donegal 7 2 4.2 0
14 Carlow 2 1 3.2 0
15 Mayo 4 1 2.9 10
16 Galway 8 3 2.9 9
17 Cork 15 3 2.6 29
18 Cavan 2 1 2.4 0
19 Tipperary 2 1 1.2 6
20 Kilkenny 1 1 1.0 13
21 Clare 0 0 0 10
22= Meath 0 0 0 11
22= Sligo 0 0 0 10
22= Offaly 0 0 0 3
22= Roscommon 0 0 0 2
26 Leitrim 0 0 0 4

The chasing pack

The pipeline column is where the next 12 months get decided. Cork (29 pipeline courts) and Dublin (24) are building fastest in absolute terms; Waterford (14) and Kilkenny (13 pipeline vs 1 open) are the counties about to jump furthest up this table; Kildare's 12 are now dominated by a single project — the approved nine-court Arena Padel centre at Greenhill, backed by former Ireland goalkeeper Shay Given; and Sligo's ten planned courts would take it from zero straight into the top ten.

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).

Methodology & sources

Court counts: Openplay's national padel court tracker — 150 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, August 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. "Pipeline" = courts at venues in build, with planning granted, or with a live planning application lodged; 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 · August 2026 court update · State of Padel in Ireland 2026 · find a coach.