In 1841 the census counted 8,175,124 people on the island of Ireland. The latest censuses, 2021 in the north and 2022 in the south, counted 7,052,314. That is more than 1.1 million fewer people after 180 years. Here is what happened, county by county, and where the people went.
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The two counts
The census of 6 June 1841 counted 8,175,124 people. The latest censuses counted 7,052,314: 1,903,175 in Northern Ireland in 2021 and 5,149,139 in the Republic of Ireland in 2022. The island is 1,122,810 people, or 13.7%, below its 1841 figure.
In those same years Scotland more than doubled, from 2.6 million people to 5.4 million. In historians’ estimates for today’s borders, every one of the 43 other European countries has more people now than in 1841. The slowest to grow, Czechia, is up by two thirds.
The map: 24 of 32 counties are still below 1841
Leitrim is the worst. It had 155,297 people in 1841 and 35,199 in 2022: down 77%. Roscommon is down 72%, Monaghan 67%, Cavan 66% and Mayo 65%. Tipperary, Sligo, Longford, Fermanagh and Clare have each lost more than half. Even Cork, with its city, is down by almost a third.
Only eight counties have grown. Dublin has almost four times the people it had: 372,773 then, 1,458,154 now. The others are Kildare, Antrim, Down, Wicklow, Meath, Derry and Louth.
| County | 1841 | Latest census | Census year | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leitrim | 155,297 | 35,199 | 2022 | −77.3% |
| Roscommon | 253,591 | 70,259 | 2022 | −72.3% |
| Monaghan | 200,442 | 65,288 | 2022 | −67.4% |
| Cavan | 243,158 | 81,704 | 2022 | −66.4% |
| Mayo | 388,887 | 137,970 | 2022 | −64.5% |
| Tipperary | 435,553 | 167,895 | 2022 | −61.5% |
| Sligo | 180,886 | 70,198 | 2022 | −61.2% |
| Longford | 115,491 | 46,751 | 2022 | −59.5% |
| Fermanagh | 156,481 | 63,585 | 2021 | −59.4% |
| Clare | 286,394 | 127,938 | 2022 | −55.3% |
| Kilkenny | 202,420 | 104,160 | 2022 | −48.5% |
| Kerry | 293,880 | 156,458 | 2022 | −46.8% |
| Donegal | 296,448 | 167,084 | 2022 | −43.6% |
| Offaly | 146,857 | 83,150 | 2022 | −43.4% |
| Laois | 153,930 | 91,877 | 2022 | −40.3% |
| Tyrone | 312,956 | 188,383 | 2021 | −39.8% |
| Galway | 440,198 | 277,737 | 2022 | −36.9% |
| Limerick | 330,029 | 209,536 | 2022 | −36.5% |
| Waterford | 196,187 | 127,363 | 2022 | −35.1% |
| Westmeath | 141,300 | 96,221 | 2022 | −31.9% |
| Cork | 854,118 | 584,156 | 2022 | −31.6% |
| Carlow | 86,228 | 61,968 | 2022 | −28.1% |
| Wexford | 202,033 | 163,919 | 2022 | −18.9% |
| Armagh | 232,393 | 194,394 | 2021 | −16.4% |
| Louth | 128,240 | 139,703 | 2022 | +8.9% |
| Derry / Londonderry | 222,174 | 252,231 | 2021 | +13.5% |
| Meath | 183,828 | 220,826 | 2022 | +20.1% |
| Wicklow | 126,143 | 155,851 | 2022 | +23.6% |
| Down | 368,143 | 553,261 | 2021 | +50.3% |
| Antrim | 354,178 | 651,321 | 2021 | +83.9% |
| Kildare | 114,488 | 247,774 | 2022 | +116.4% |
| Dublin | 372,773 | 1,458,154 | 2022 | +291.2% |
Belfast lies in two counties. The 1841 report counted it as one town, so the people who lived on the County Down side are counted here in Down.
What happened
Before the Famine the population had been rising fast. An estimate for 1672 put it at 1.1 million, and one for 1804 at 5.4 million. Then came the Great Famine, from 1845.
Nobody registered the deaths. Registration did not begin until 1864, so every figure is a reconstruction. The historians Phelim Boyle and Cormac Ó Gráda estimate one million deaths; Joel Mokyr and Ó Gráda, about 1.1 million; Kerby Miller, about 1.2 million.
And people left. Miller counts one and a half million who went overseas between 1845 and 1855, most to the United States, and another 200,000 to 300,000 who settled in Britain: more than two million in all. By the census of 1851 the island had about six and a half million people. One person in five was gone.
Why it kept falling
In most countries a population recovers after a disaster. Ireland’s kept falling. In the 26 counties that are now the Republic, every census from 1851 to 1961, except one, was lower than the one before: 6,528,799 in 1841, 4,402,111 in 1861, 3,870,020 in 1881, 3,221,823 in 1901.
Historians give different weight to the reasons, but they name the same ones: emigration in every decade, late and rare marriage, and farms passed whole to a single heir.
The island reached its lowest count in 1926: about 4.2 million people, barely half the number of 1841. The north had already turned; its low point was 1891, at 1.2 million. The south kept falling until 1961, when it had 2,818,341 people, 57% fewer than in 1841. In the 1950s alone, about 400,000 more people left than arrived.
Where they went
Above all, to the United States. The American census of 1850 found 961,719 people born in Ireland: more than four in ten of all the foreign-born in the country. Ten years later it was 1.6 million, and the number peaked in 1890 at 1,871,509. Today, 32.4 million Americans claim Irish ancestry, about one in ten — many now tracing exactly which townland their own family left. That is more than four times the population of the whole island.
The turn
In the 1970s, for the first time, more people came to the Republic than left. In the 1980s they left again. Since 1991 the Republic has grown from three and a half million to more than five million: the census of 2022 was the first above five million in 171 years. Northern Ireland is at the highest population it has ever recorded. The newest estimate for the Republic, for April 2026, is 5,525,600.
What the comparison can and cannot say
- The two latest censuses were taken a year apart, and they count differently: the south counts who was present that night, the north counts who usually lives there.
- Some county boundaries have moved since 1841, so a change of a few percent is approximate. None of the 32 is close enough to the line for that to matter.
- On the newest official estimates the island has about 7,454,000 people. That is still about 700,000 short of 1841.
So the island is growing again, but 24 of its counties have not got back to where they stood in 1841. Leitrim’s lowest count was as late as 1996. It has grown at every census since.
Figures checked against the sources below on 13 October 2026.
Sources
- Census of Ireland 1841, original county reports (hosted by the Central Statistics Office)
- Central Statistics Office: Census of Population 2022, population changes
- Central Statistics Office: Population and Migration Estimates, April 2026
- Central Statistics Office: Census Through History
- NISRA: Census 2021 statistical bulletin, 24 May 2022
- Our World in Data: population by country
- U.S. Census Bureau: Irish-American Heritage Month 2026
- U.S. Census Bureau: Working Paper 81, Table 4
- Mokyr and Ó Gráda, “Famine Disease and Famine Mortality: Lessons from Ireland, 1845-1850” (1999)
- Boyle and Ó Gráda, “Fertility trends, excess mortality, and the Great Irish Famine” (1986)
- Kerby A. Miller, Emigrants and Exiles (1985)
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Picture credits for the video
Every clip, photograph, engraving, map and page in the video is real, from Pexels, Wikimedia Commons, the National Library of Ireland, the Library of Congress, the New York Public Library, the Love Ireland licensed library or the official sources themselves.
Video clips
- Vibrant dublin street scene in daylight, Selim Karadayı, Pexels License
- Bustling crowd on edinburgh s royal mile, Media Hopper Studio, Pexels License
- Lough key castle, Andrew Mulleady, Pexels License
- Aerial view of cork city river and buildings, Maurice Supple, Pexels License
- Busy pedestrian bridge in dublin city center, Mark Holmes, Pexels License
- Aerial view of irish town and historic church, Jay's Photography, Pexels License
- Drone view of abandoned stone structure in ireland, Jay's Photography, Pexels License
- Rural ireland drone 4k, Reel Focus Productions, Pexels License
- Titanic belfast museum exterior view, Clément Proust, Pexels License
- The statue of liberty, Matthis Volquardsen, Pexels License
- Aerial footage over the river liffey capturing the iconic samuel beckett bridge modern office buildings docked yachts and rowing teams in the water, Luciann Photography, Pexels License
- Aerial footage of the signage of grand canal docks and it s close surroundings, K, Pexels License
- Belfast city skyline on a foggy day, James Rea Jr., Pexels License
- Drone view of a city boston massachusetts usa, James Hamar, Pexels License
- Majestic cliffs of ireland s atlantic coast, Clément Proust, Pexels License
Photographs and engravings
- Emigrants boarding the tenders at Queenstown (Cobh), Co. Cork. Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland, 1890s or 1900s, Robert French, No restrictions
- Natural Ireland. Lough Allen by Kayak in Spring Sun, Jesse Burgle Johnson, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Deserted Village at Slievemore, Achill Island, Co. Mayo, photographed in 2018, Veenpluis, CC BY-SA 4.0
- The Deserted Village at Slievemore, Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Colin Park, CC BY-SA 2.0
- Gweedore, Co. Donegal. Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland, about 1880 to 1900, Robert French, No restrictions
- Fair day in Glenties, Co. Donegal. Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland, 1890s or 1900s, Robert French, No restrictions
- "Funeral at Skibbereen", The Illustrated London News, 30 January 1847, Frederick James Smyth, Public domain
- The Famine memorial on Custom House Quay, Dublin (sculpture of 1997), photographed in 2018, AlBa344, CC BY-SA 4.0
- "Emigrants leaving Queenstown for New York", wood engraving, Library of Congress, Miscellaneous Items in High Demand, PPOC, Library of Congress, Public domain
- Main Street, Roscommon town, about 1903. Lawrence Collection, National Library of Ireland, National Library of Ireland on The Commons, No restrictions
- The State Emigrant Landing Depot, Castle Garden, New York (19th-century print, New York Public Library), Scan by NYPL, Public domain
- St. Patrick's Day parade on Fifth Avenue, New York, 1909. Bain News Service, Library of Congress, Bain News Service, publisher, Public domain
- County Roscommon – Carrick-on-Shannon Bridge – 20200731195242, Jonjobaker, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Carrick-on-Shannon Bridge, Peter Gavigan, CC BY 2.5
- 2 photographs from the Love Ireland licensed library (licensed for commercial use; no credit required).
Maps, charts and pages
- County maps drawn by Love Ireland from boundary data: © Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0; © Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland, Open Government Licence v3.0
- Charts drawn by Love Ireland from the census figures listed under Sources
- Pages of the Census of Ireland 1841 (public domain) and of the Central Statistics Office, NISRA and U.S. Census Bureau publications listed under Sources
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