In the past four centuries, the population of the United States has grown from a recorded 350 people around the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1610, to an estimated 331 million people in 2020. The pre-colonization populations of the indigenous peoples of the Americas have proven difficult for historians to estimate, as their numbers decreased rapidly following the introduction of European diseases (namely smallpox, plague and influenza). Native Americans were also omitted from most censuses conducted before the twentieth century, therefore the actual population of what we now know as the United States would have been much higher than the official census data from before 1800, but it is unclear by how much. Population growth in the colonies throughout the eighteenth century has primarily been attributed to migration from the British Isles and the Transatlantic slave trade; however it is also difficult to assert the ethnic-makeup of the population in these years as accurate migration records were not kept until after the 1820s, at which point the importation of slaves had also been illegalized. Nineteenth century In the year 1800, it is estimated that the population across the present-day United States was around six million people, with the population in the 16 admitted states numbering at 5.3 million. Migration to the United States began to happen on a large scale in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first major waves coming from Ireland, Britain and Germany. In some aspects, this wave of mass migration balanced out the demographic impacts of the American Civil War, which was the deadliest war in U.S. history with approximately 620 thousand fatalities between 1861 and 1865. The civil war also resulted in the emancipation of around four million slaves across the south; many of whose ancestors would take part in the Great Northern Migration in the early 1900s, which saw around six million black Americans migrate away from the south in one of the largest demographic shifts in U.S. history. By the end of the nineteenth century, improvements in transport technology and increasing economic opportunities saw migration to the United States increase further, particularly from southern and Eastern Europe, and in the first decade of the 1900s the number of migrants to the U.S. exceeded one million people in some years. Twentieth and twenty-first century The U.S. population has grown steadily throughout the past 120 years, reaching one hundred million in the 1910s, two hundred million in the 1960s, and three hundred million in 2007. In the past century, the U.S. established itself as a global superpower, with the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) and most powerful military. Involvement in foreign wars has resulted in over 620,000 further U.S. fatalities since the Civil War, and migration fell drastically during the World Wars and Great Depression; however the population continuously grew in these years as the total fertility rate remained above two births per woman, and life expectancy increased (except during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918).

Since the Second World War, Latin America has replaced Europe as the most common point of origin for migrants, with Hispanic populations growing rapidly across the south and border states. Because of this, the proportion of non-Hispanic whites, which has been the most dominant ethnicity in the U.S. since records began, has dropped more rapidly in recent decades. Ethnic minorities also have a much higher birth rate than non-Hispanic whites, further contributing to this decline, and the share of non-Hispanic whites is expected to fall below fifty percent of the U.S. population by the mid-2000s. In 2020, the United States has the third-largest population in the world (after China and India), and the population is expected to reach four hundred million in the 2050s.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the project was to provide machine-readable economic and social history statistics relating to the whole of Ireland for the period 1821-1971. Further information about the project is available on the QUB Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis website.


Main Topics:

The dataset contains census of industrial production data covering output, capital employed, wages, persons employed, firm size and location; and trade statistics covering commodities imported and exported and value of trade between countries. All the relevant background material is incorporated either in the documentation files or in the scanned images of the tables of contents, prefaces, and notes in the original source.

The main census of industrial production tables are:

Gross value of output, cost of materials, total net output, salaries, wages, remainder of net output, and number of persons engaged for each industry or trade (1926, 1929, 1932-1971) Republic of Ireland only.

Value of industrial commodities for each industry or trade (1926, 1929, 1932-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Value of stocks of materials, work in progress, stocks of goods made by the establishment, and stocks of goods purchased for resale without further processing for each industry or trade (1953-1963 and 1966-1971) Republic of Ireland only.

Value of stocks of materials, work in progress, stocks of goods made by the establishment, plant and machinery, and building and land for each industry or trade (1953-1963 and 1966-1971) Republic of Ireland.

Annual change in value of fixed capital in each year including cost of plant, machinery and vehicles, cost of new buildings including extensions and substantial alterations, cost of land and other fixed assets, value of sales of plant and machinery, value of sales of vehicles, value of sales of land and buildings for each industry or trade (1945-1954, 1956-1965 and 1968-1971) Republic of Ireland only.

Value of various fuels consumed by each industry and trades (1926, 1929 and 1932-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Total number of proprietors, salaried employees, industrial wage earners, other wage earners for each industry or trade, grouped by gender and age under or over 18 (1926, 1929, 1932-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Wage rates both for salaried employees and wage earners for each industry or trade (1926, 1929, 1936-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Average earnings per week and average hours worked by week for each industry or trade, grouped by gender and age under or over 18 (1937-1944, 1958-1967 and 1969-1971) Republic of Ireland only.

Number of wage earners for each industry or trade grouped by wage rate and gender(1937, 1958-1967) Republic of Ireland only.

Number of wage earners for each industry or trade grouped by wage rate and age under or over 18 (1938-1944) Republic of Ireland only.

Size of labour force in firms for each industry or trade (1929, 1935-1938 and 1944-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Number of firms, gross output excluding excise duty, net output, and average number of persons engaged grouped by county for each industry or trade (1936-1947) Republic of Ireland only.

Value of sales and work done, value of stocks of finished products and work in progress at beginning and end of year, cost of outward transport of goods sold, gross output, net output, persons employed, output per person employed, costs of purchases of materials and fuel, stocks of materials and fuels at beginning and end of year, cost of inward transport of materials and fuels used, and amount paid for work given out for each industry or trade (1951-1957) Northern Ireland only.

Gross output, sales, purchases of materials and fuels, net output, net output per person, persons employed, and wages and salaries paid for each industry or trade (1963 and 1968-1972) Northern Ireland only.

Gross output, cost of materials and amount paid to other firms for work given out, cost of inward transport, net output, persons employed, and output per person employed for each industry or trade (1930, 1935 and 1949-1968) Northern Ireland only.

Number of working proprietors and directors, number of administrative, technical and clerical staff, number of operatives, salaries of administrative, technical and clerical staff, earnings of operatives for each industry or trade (1949-1972) Northern Ireland only.

Value of plant and machinery and plant acquired during the year, value of vehicles acquired during year, capital expenditure on new buildings, disposal of plant, machinery and vehicles for each industry or trade (1949-1968) Northern Ireland only

New building work, land and existing buildings, plant and machinery, vehicles, total disposals, net capital...

In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in the West, and an influx of migrants from...

During the eighteenth century, it is estimated that France's population grew by roughly fifty percent, from 19.7 million in 1700, to 29 million by 1800. In France itself, the 1700s are remembered for the end of King Louis XIV's reign in 1715, the Age of Enlightenment, and the French Revolution. During this century, the scientific and ideological advances made in France and across Europe challenged the leadership structures of the time, and questioned the relationship between monarchial, religious and political institutions and their subjects. France was arguably the most powerful nation in the world in these early years, with the second largest population in Europe (after Russia); however, this century was defined by a number of costly, large-scale conflicts across Europe and in the new North American theater, which saw the loss of most overseas territories (particularly in North America) and almost bankrupted the French crown. A combination of regressive taxation, food shortages and enlightenment ideologies ultimately culminated in the French Revolution in 1789, which brought an end to the Ancien Régime, and set in motion a period of self-actualization.

War and peace

After a volatile and tumultuous decade, in which tens of thousands were executed by the state (most infamously: guillotined), relative stability was restored within France as Napoleon Bonaparte seized power in 1799, and the policies of the revolution became enforced. Beyond France's borders, the country was involved in a series of large scale wars for two almost decades, and the First French Empire eventually covered half of Europe by 1812. In 1815, Napoleon was defeated outright, the empire was dissolved, and the monarchy was restored to France; nonetheless, a large number of revolutionary and Napoleonic reforms remained in effect afterwards, and the ideas had a long-term impact across the globe. France experienced a century of comparative peace in the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars; there were some notable uprisings and conflicts, and the monarchy was abolished yet again, but nothing on the scale of what had preceded or what was to follow. A new overseas colonial empire was also established in the late 1800s, particularly across Africa and Southeast Asia. Through most of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, France had the second largest population in Europe (after Russia), however political instability and the economic prioritization of Paris meant that the entire country did not urbanize or industrialize at the same rate as the other European powers. Because of this, Germany and Britain entered the twentieth century with larger populations, and other regions, such as Austria or Belgium, had overtaken France in terms of industrialization; the German annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in the Franco-Prussian War was also a major contributor to this.

World Wars and contemporary France

Coming into the 1900s, France had a population of approximately forty million people (officially 38 million* due to to territorial changes), and there was relatively little growth in the first half of the century. France was comparatively unprepared for a large scale war, however it became one of the most active theaters of the First World War when Germany invaded via Belgium in 1914, with the ability to mobilize over eight million men. By the war's end in 1918, France had lost almost 1.4 million in the conflict, and approximately 300,000 in the Spanish Flu pandemic that followed. Germany invaded France again during the Second World War, and occupied the country from 1940, until the Allied counter-invasion liberated the country during the summer of 1944. France lost around 600,000 people in the course of the war, over half of which were civilians. Following the war's end, the country experienced a baby boom, and the population grew by approximately twenty million people in the next fifty years (compared to just one million in the previous fifty years). Since the 1950s, France's economy quickly grew to be one of the strongest in the world, despite losing the vast majority of its overseas colonial empire by the 1970s. A wave of migration, especially from these former colonies, has greatly contributed to the growth and diversity of France's population today, which stands at over 65 million people in 2020.

It is presumed that the first humans migrated from Siberia to North America approximately twelve thousand years ago, where they then moved southwards to warmer lands. It was not until many centuries later that humans returned to the north and began to settle regions that are now part of Canada. Despite a few short-lived Viking settlements on Newfoundland around the turn of the first millennium CE, the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), became the first European to explore the coast of North America in the late 1400s. The French and British crowns both made claims to areas of Canada throughout the sixteenth century, but real colonization and settlement did not begin until the early seventeenth century. Over the next 150 years, France and Britain competed to take control of the booming fur and fishing trade, and to expand their overseas empires. In the Seven Year's War, Britain eventually defeated the French colonists in North America, through superior numbers and a stronger agriculture resources in the southern colonies, and the outcome of the war saw France cede practically all of it's colonies in North America to the British.

Increased migration and declining native populations

The early 1800s saw a large influx of migrants into Canada, with the Irish Potato Famine bringing the first wave of mass-migration to the country, with further migration coming from Scandinavia and Northern Europe. It is estimated that the region received just shy of one million migrants from the British Isles alone, between 1815 and 1850, which helped the population grow to 2.5 million in the mid-1800s and 5.5 million in 1900. It is also estimated that infectious diseases killed around 25 to 33 percent of all Europeans who migrated to Canada before 1891, and around a third of the Canadian population is estimated to have emigrated southwards to the United States in the 1871-1896 period. From the time of European colonization until the mid-nineteenth century, the native population of Canada dropped from roughly 500,000 (some estimates put it as high as two million) to just over 100,000; this was due to a mixture of disease, starvation and warfare, instigated by European migration to the region. The native population was generally segregated and oppressed until the second half of the 1900s; Native Canadians were given the vote in 1960, and, despite their complicated and difficult history, the Canadian government has made significant progress in trying to include indigenous cultures in the country's national identity in recent years. As of 2020, Indigenous Canadians make up more than five percent of the total Canadian population, and a higher birth rate means that this share of the population is expected to grow in the coming decades.

Independence and modern Canada

Canadian independence was finally acknowledged in 1931 by the Statute of Westminster, putting it on equal terms with the United Kingdom within the Commonwealth; virtually granting independence and sovereignty until the Canada Act of 1982 formalized it. Over the past century, Canada has had a relatively stable political system and economy (although it was hit particularly badly by the Wall Street Crash of 1929). Canada entered the First World War with Britain, and as an independent Allied Power in the Second World War; Canadian forces played pivotal roles in a number of campaigns, notably Canada's Hundred Days in WWI, and the country lost more than 100,000 men across both conflicts. The economy boomed in the aftermath of the Second World War, and a stream of socially democratic programs such as universal health care and the Canadian pension plan were introduced, which contributed to a rise in the standard of living. The post war period also saw various territories deciding to join Canada, with Newfoundland joining in 1949, and Nunavut in 1999. Today Canada is among the most highly ranked in countries in terms of civil liberties, quality of life and economic growth. It promotes and welcomes immigrants from all over the world and, as a result, it has one of the most ethnically diverse and multicultural populations of any country in the world. As of 2020, Canada's population stands at around 38 million people, and continues to grow due to high migration levels and life expectancy, and a steady birth rate.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the area of modern-day Italy, at the time a collection of various states and kingdoms, was estimated to have a population of nineteen million, a figure which would grow steadily throughout the century, and by the establishment of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861, the population would rise to just over 26 million.

Italy’s population would see its first major disruption during the First World War, as Italy would join the Allied Forces in their fight against Austria-Hungary and Germany. In the First World War, Italy’s population would largely stagnate at 36 million, only climbing again following the end of the war in 1920. While Italy would also play a prominent role in the Second World War, as the National Fascist Party-led country would fight alongside Germany against the Allies, Italian fatalities from the war would not represent a significant percentage of Italy’s population compared to other European countries in the conflict. As a result, Italy would exit the Second World War with a population of just over 45 million.

From this point onwards the Italian economy started to recover from the war, and eventually boomed, leading to increased employment and standards of living, which facilitated steady population growth until the mid-1980s, when falling fertility and birth rates would cause growth to largely cease. From this point onward, the Italian population would remain at just over 57 million, until the 2000s when it began growing again due to an influx of migrants, peaking in 2017 at just over 60 million people. In the late 2010s, however, the Italian population began declining again, as immigration slowed and the economy weakened. As a result, in 2020, Italy is estimated to have fallen to a population of 59 million.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of the project was to provide machine-readable economic and social history statistics relating to the whole of Ireland for the period 1821-1971. Further information about the project is available on the QUB Centre for Data Digitisation and Analysis website.


Main Topics:

The dataset contains agricultural statistics covering areas under various crops, stock numbers, labour employed on farms, and machinery used on farms. All the relevant background material is incorporated either in the documentation files or in the scanned images of the tables of contents, prefaces, and notes in the original source. The main agricultural statistics tables are:

Acreages under different crops grouped by county districts (1925-1929 Northern Ireland; 1926, 1933, 1954, 1960 and 1965 Republic of Ireland).

Acreages under different crops grouped by counties (1911, 1916-1918 and 1925-1973).

Acreages under different crops grouped by size of farms (1925-1926, 1935, 1949, 1951-1952 and 1960) Republic of Ireland only.

Acreages under different crops grouped by counties and size of farms (1925-1926, 1935, 1949, 1951-1952, 1960, 1967 and 1973) Northern Ireland only.

Livestock numbers grouped by county districts (1925-1929 Northern Ireland; 1926, 1933, 1954, 1960, 1965 and 1970 Republic of Ireland).

Livestock numbers grouped by counties (1911, 1916-1918 and 1925-1926; 1927-1934, 1939, 1944, 1949, 1952-1954, 1960, 1965 and 1970) Republic of Ireland; 1930-1973 Northern Ireland).

Livestock numbers grouped by counties and size of farms (1925, 1935, 1951-1952, 1967 and 1973 Northern Ireland; 1926, 1931, 1949 and 1954 Republic of Ireland).

Total number of farms grouped by size (1923-1926 and 1928-1973).

Total acreage of farms grouped by size (1954-1973) Northern Ireland only.

Total acreage covered by different land types (1923-1953) Northern Ireland only.

Utilisation of different land types (1954-1973) Northern Ireland only.

Total number of farm workers classified as either owners in residence, family members under 18, permanent employees under 18, temporary employees under 18, family members over 18, permanent employees over 18 or temporary employees over 18, group by counties (1912 and 1924-1973).

Total number of male farm workers classified as either family members under 18, permanent employees under 18, temporary employees under 18, family members over 18, permanent employees over 18 or temporary employees over 18, group by counties and size of farms (1912 and 1931).

Total number of farm workers classified as either male owners, female owners, full-time family members or full-time hired workers group by counties and size of farms (1953) Northern Ireland only.

Total number of male farm workers classified as either family members under 18, permanent employees under 18, temporary employees under 18, family members over 18, permanent employees over 18 or temporary employees over 18, group by county districts (1965 and 1970) Republic of Ireland only.

Total number of female farm workers classified as either family members under 18, permanent employees under 18, temporary employees under 18, family members over 18, permanent employees over 18 or temporary employees over 18, group by counties (1912 and 1924-1929) Northern Ireland only.

Total number of female farm workers classified as either owners, wives of owners, permanent family members, temporary family members, permanent hired workers or temporary hired workers group by counties (1930-1973) Northern Ireland only.

Total number of female farm workers classified as either family members under 18, permanent employees under 18, temporary employees under 18, family members over 18, permanent employees over 18 or temporary employees over 18, group by counties and size of farms (1912, 1925 and 1926) Republic of Ireland only.

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery (1951, 1952, 1954, 1956, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1966 and 1972).

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery grouped by counties (1917, 1929 (Republic of Ireland only), 1939, 1949, 1952-1954, 1960 and 1966).

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery grouped by counties and size of farms (1971) Northern Ireland only.

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery grouped by counties and size of farms (1929) Republic of Ireland only.

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery grouped by size of farms (1949) Republic of Ireland only.

Total numbers of different types of agricultural machinery and different types of horses grouped by provinces and size of farms (1949) Republic of Ireland only.

Please note: this study does not...