Ireland’s cleanest and dirtiest towns revealed in new survey

You may be surprised at some of the findings...

Business group Irish Business Against Litter (IBAL), assessed 40 locations across nationwide before publishing the list, from least littered to most littered.

Sligo has replaced Naas as Ireland's cleanest town, with the town's Quayside Shopping Centre dubbed "absolutely spotless".

Furthermore, bus and train stations in the area were also praised for their cleanliness.

Conor Horgan from IBAL commented: "Sligo has come such a long way from back in 2007, when the town was bottom of our rankings, and labelled a litter black spot.

"It is an illustration of the turnabout that is possible, even in a large town, when council and community come together."

Leixlip, Westport, Monaghan and Tullamore rounded out the top five, with previous winner Naas dropping to 13th.

On the other side of things, Dublin's North Inner City flew to the bottom of the list, described as 'littered'.

Cork's Northside, Ballymun, and Ballybane in Galway's Inner City joined them in the 'littered' category, however none were described as 'seriously littered'.

Another positive came as researchers found that the number of 'clean' towns in 2025 reached 28.

Galvone in Limerick, Mahon in Cork and Tallaght in Dublin were some of the more urban areas receiving a clean status.

Wondering what causes the most litter? Well, once again, coffee cups have persisted as one of the most frequently discovered litter items.

They were found at 20% of all surveyed locations.

Mr Horgan called 'the likely collapse of reusable coffee cup schemes' in some towns 'a real disappointment', calling for statutory backing on the scheme.

"As our data today bears out, without Government intervention coffee cups will remain an unsightly and entirely unnecessary blot on the landscape across our towns.

"The prevarication from Government on the issue is striking - a levy was promised all of four years ago – and sends out a worrying signal. Weaning ourselves off single-use coffee cups should not be such a big deal."

See the full list from most to least littered below:

1. Sligo
2. Leixlip
3. Westport
4. Monaghan
5. Tullamore
6. Waterford City
7. Killarney
8. Letterkenny
9. Galway City Centre
10. Wexford
11. Dun Laoghaire
12. Roscommon
13. Naas
14. Mullingar
15. Ennis
16. Tralee
17. Kilkenny
18. Mahon - Cork City
19. Cavan
20. Wicklow
21. Fermoy
22. Longford
23. Ballybeg
24. Dublin Airport Environs
25. Portlaoise
26. Limerick City South - Galvone
27. Cork City Centre
28. Tallaght
29. Drogheda
30. Navan
31. Dublin City Centre
32. Athlone
33. Limerick City Centre
34. Dundalk
35. Carlow
36. Clonmel
37. Cork Northside
38. Ballymun
39. Galway Inner City - Ballybane
40. Dublin North Inner City