This data collection contains data primarily from both the 1841 and 1851 Census of Ireland used in Fernihough and Ó Gráda (2022). Also contained, where available, are population counts from the 1821 and 1831 censuses. The data collection also includes an amended version of the Civil Parish Shapefile from townlands.ie (OpenStreetMap Ireland, 2020). Both data sources were adjusted to ensure concordance. The towlands.ie data is open data is open data, licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database License (ODbL). Please contact Alan Fernihough for further details or queries.

The “shapefile” files are the GIS files one needs to load the spatial boundaries. The census data is included in the “data.csv” file and one must merge this to the shapefiles to work with these data. However, this is a simple process. The file “load and join.R” is an example of how this could be performed using the R statistical software package.

Was early 19th century Ireland overpopulated and fertility at an unsustainable level, or did other factors cause the Great Irish Famine? Did the famine-induced migration to Britain spread infectious diseases and have a substantial impact on British mortality rates? Similarly, what impact did the famine have on the British labour force and economy generally? This research project will answer these questions.

The Great Famine was a watershed in global history. It was the last major famine to occur in a Western economy, and had long-run impacts. The enduring legacy of the famine has sparked the interest of numerous novelists and playwrights.

Earlier this year, news that media group Channel 4 was considering commissioning a Great Famine-based sitcom stoked an intense public debate. Many felt that this would trivialise the tragedy. The length and breadth of this debate underlined the immense interest that still surrounds the famine. However, the spectrum of opinions as to the causes and consequences of the famine also highlighted the need for further historical research.

Let the Data Speak

Joel Mokyr's influential 1983 book Why Ireland Starved redefined famine research. Before, famine-related research was largely based on qualitative assessments that left ample room for both conjecture and, rhetoric, and errors. Unlike previous researchers, Mokyr, wanted to let the data decide whether or not it was Ireland's overpopulation that caused the famine. To do this he gathered data on the population density of Irish regions and found that it was Ireland's least densely populated regions that were the ones that suffered worse during the famine. Mokyr's test did not support the overpopulation theory (captured by what is known as the Malthusian model).

I hasten to add that the Malthusian model cannot be considered to have been refuted by this finding. For one thing, the possibility that more sophisticated econometric techniques and improved data will reverse the finding cannot be ruled out. (Mokyr, 1983).

Whilst striking, Mokyr's analysis was based on variation between relatively few data points (Ireland's 32 counties), as the quote above testifies. This study is motivated by the above quote. Better data (from over 3,000 civil parishes) and more sophisticated econometric techniques exist, and therefore Mokyr's findings can at last be re-evaluated, something this project will do.

Mokyr's philosophy of letting the data speak, can also be applied to help uncover some of the Great Famine's consequences. Specifically, this project will quantify the impact that famine-induced migration had on Britain.

The famine caused a mass movement of the Irish population to Britain. Before the famine, there were around 430,000 Irish born in Britain. By 1851, the Irish-born population had grown to 730,000. This crisis-driven mass-migration echoes Europe's migration crisis today, as people flea from war-torn and economically desolate nations in Africa and Asia. In this sense, the Great Irish Famine provides a form of historical natural experiment from which we can learn from and gain a greater understanding of the consequences of mass migrations.

What effect did the Irish famine have on Britain? This research will use newly available census data (released as part of the ESRC-funded ICeM project) to uncover how the Irish famine influenced the British economy and labour force. For example, did the influx of Irish in certain cities such as Liverpool and Manchester boost demand and help to speed up economic growth, or did this migration depress the wages of locals and therefore stifle economic advancement? In addition, this project will also use newly available records of regional mortality to calculate what impact, if any, the Great Famine had on mortality in England and Wales. If the Irish famine caused elevated levels of mortality, this implies that the ultimate death toll of the Irish famine is underestimated.

From 1821 until 2011, the male and female populations of the 26 counties of the modern-day Republic of Ireland grew at a relatively similar rate, however some fluctuations did occur. During this time, the entire island of Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Acts of Union in 1800. This graph shows the populations of the 26 counties that would later form the Republic of Ireland in 1921, and does not include the six counties that became known as Northern Ireland.

As we can see, both populations follow a relatively similar trend throughout their respective histories. In the first three entries, women outnumber men by 70,000 to 120,000, although these figures do not include military personnel which would narrow this margin. Both populations fall at a similar rate during and after the famine, however the male population does fall slightly faster, possibly due to an increased rate of emigration among males. Another point where both populations differ is in the early twentieth century, where the female population declines in a relatively smooth curve, although the male populations peak in the census data before and after both world wars. From 1956 onwards both populations follow a very similar trend, and grow at the same rate. The difference in population sizes never exceeds 30,000 people, until the final entry in 2011 where the population of men is 2.27 million and the population of women is 2.31 million.

The island of Ireland is split into 32 different counties, and from 1800 until 1921 the whole island was a part of the United Kingdome of Great Britain and Ireland (although Britain had been a controlling presence on the island for considerably longer than this). In 1921 the island was split into two separate states, where the six counties with the highest population of Protestants formed part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the other 26 counties became the Independent Republic of Ireland. From 1821 until 1841, the population of these 26 counties was growing steadily, until the Great Famine from 1845 to 1849 swept across the island, particularly devastating the west and south.

The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. People in the west and south of Ireland were particularly dependent on potatoes, and these areas were affected more heavily than the north and west, where flax and cereals were the staple. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly reliant on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels.

The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained some independence from Britain in 1921, establishing an Irish Republic in the 26 counties. There was a lot of conflict in Ireland in the early 1900s, through the War of Independence and Irish Civil War, however the population of the Republic began growing again from the 1960s onwards as the quality of life improved and the emigration rate declined. The population was at it's lowest from 1926 to 1971, where it remained at just under three million, but in the following fifty years the population has grown by over two million people.

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 main tables are:
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by baronies and gender (1841-1861).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties, gender and age groups (1841, 1901-1911).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties and gender (1851-1861).
Total number of persons who could read and write, read only, or neither read nor write, grouped by counties, gender, age groups and religion (1871-1891).

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

In 1821, Ireland's population was just over 6.8 million people. During this time, the entire island was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Acts of Union in 1800. From the graph we can see that the population enjoyed steady growth between 1821 and 1841, and it rose by almost 1.4 million people in this time. However the Great Famine, which lasted from 1845 to 1849, had a devastating impact on the population, causing it to drop from 8.18 million in 1841 to 6.55 million in 1851. The Great Hunger The famine was caused by a Europe-wide potato blight that contributed to mass starvation and death throughout the continent, although it's impact on Ireland was much harsher than anywhere else. The potato blight affected Ireland so severely as the majority of potatoes in Ireland were of a single variety which allowed the disease to spread much faster than in other countries. As the potato blight spread, the population became increasingly dependent on dairy and grain products, however a lot of these resources were relocated by the British military to combat food shortages in Britain. Due to disproportional dependency on potatoes, and mismanagement by the British government, over one million people died and a further one million emigrated. The Great Famine lasted from just 1845 to 1849, but it's legacy caused almost a century of population decline, and to this day, the population of Ireland has never exceeded it's pre-famine levels. Road to recovery The population decline continued well into the twentieth century, during which time the Republic of Ireland achieved independence from the British Empire. After centuries of fighting and rebellion against British rule, Irish nationalists finally gained independence from Britain in 1921, although the six counties with the largest Protestant populations formed Northern Ireland, which is still a part of the United Kingdom today. In spite of the conflict that overshadowed Ireland for much of the twentieth century, which claimed the lives of thousands of people (particularly during the Northern Irish Troubles), and despite Ireland's high emigration rate, the population began growing again in the second half of the 1900s. The population was at it's lowest from 1926 to 1961, where it remained around 4.3 million, but in the following half-century the population grew by over two million people, reaching 6.4 million in 2011, although this number is still lower than in 1821. Gender stats The difference between the male and female populations throughout Ireland's recent history has also remained relatively low. The largest difference occurred in 1831, where there are 170,000 more women than men, although these figures do not include military personnel which would reduce the difference significantly. The gap then remains under 60,000 throughout the twentieth century.

Between 1821 and 1921, the entire island of Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, after both islands were united by the Act of Union in 1800. This graph shows only the population of the six counties of Ireland that would go on to become Northern Ireland. The population was just under 1.4 million in 1821 and grew to 1.7 million in the next twenty years.

Between 1845 and 1849 the Great Famine devastated the overall population of Ireland, causing the deaths of approximately one million people, and causing a further million to emigrate. Although the famine affected the population of the west and south of Ireland much more severely than the north, the population of the six counties still fell by over 200,000 people between 1841 and 1851. The population then continued to fall, reaching it's lowest point in the 1890s where it was 1.2 million. The Northern Irish population then grows slowly until the mid to late 1900s, during which time the state of Northern Ireland was founded in 1921. The population the reaches over 1.54 million in the 1960s, before it falls again in the 1970s. This drop in population coincides with the outbreak and the most violent decade of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which was a conflict that dominated Northern Irish daily life for decades. However, from 1981 onwards the population grows by 70,000 to 12,000 every ten years, surpassing it's pre-famine level in the 1990s.

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...

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...

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.