Ireland Population Passes 5 Million For First Time Since 1851, Mid 19th Century Famine [View all]

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The Guardian, Aug. 31, 2021. Population returns almost to level recorded after famine that killed 1 million and forced millions more to emigrate.

Ireland’s population has surpassed 5 million for the first time since the aftermath of its 19th-century famine.The republic reached the milestone in April, reflecting a combination of net migration and natural increase, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said on Tuesday.

“Ireland’s population was estimated to be 5.01 million in April 2021, which is the first time the population has risen above 5 million since the 1851 census, when the comparable population was 5.11 million,” said James Hegarty, a statistician with the agency.

The total population on the island of Ireland in 1851 was 6.6 million. Including today’s Northern Ireland population of 1.89 million, the island now has 6.9 million people. For comparison, Wales has 3.1 million people, Scotland 5.4 million and England 56.2 million.

The republic’s population grew by 34,000, or 0.7%, in the year to April. This was smaller than the previous year’s increase of 55,900.. In the 1840s, the island’s population’s exceeded 8 million before a devastating famine killed an estimated 1 million people through hunger and disease and forced millions more to emigrate...

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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/31/ireland-population-surpasses-5m-for-first-time-since-1851