There were 79,871 agricultural tractors licensed in the Republic on 31 December 2016, according to the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. This is 2,175 below the number recorded in 2015, which represents a 2.65% fall. By contrast, the number of private cars increased by 2.11% and the number of goods vehicles by 3.55% last year.The drop in tractor numbers cannot be attributed to a corresponding fall in sales – there were 1,934 new tractors (agricultural or other) first licensed in the country last year, just 52 fewer than in 2015. The figures therefore point to large numbers of tractors being decommissioned or exported during 2016.