Population of Ireland 1841-2020
From these figures you can see the dramatic drop in population from the time of the famine from 1845 to 1849. This is particularly obvious for the republic of Ireland with a drop of 1.4 million from 1841-1851, with the population continuing to decrease to a low of 2,818,341 in 1961 when it slowly started to increase to the present day population just shy of 5 million. In contrast the Population of N Ireland has now surpassed its pre-famine Population.
Irish Republic | Northern Ireland | |
1841 | 6,528,799 | 1,648,945 |
1851 | 5,111,557 | 1,442,517 |
1861 | 4,402,111 | 1,396,453 |
1871 | 4,053,187 | 1,359,190 |
1881 | 3,870,020 | 1,304,816 |
1891 | 3,468,694 | 1,236,056 |
1901 | 3,221,823 | 1,236,952 |
1911 | 3,139,688 | 1,250,531 |
1926 | 2,971,992 | 1,256,561 |
1936 | 2,968,420 | |
1946 | 2,955,107 | |
1951 | 2,960,593 | 1,370,921 |
1956 | 2,898,264 | |
1961 | 2,818,341 | 1,425,042 |
1966 | 2,884,002 | |
1971 | 2,978,248 | 1,536,065 |
1979 | 3,368,217 | |
1981 | 3,443,405 | 1,543,000 |
1986 | 3,540,643 | |
1991 | 3,525,719 | 1,607,300 |
1996 | 3,626,087 | |
2002 | 3,917,203 | 1,685,267 |
2006 | 4,239,848 | |
2011 | 4,588,252 | 1,810,863 |
2016 | 4,761,865 | |
2019 | 1,891,100 | |
2020 | 4,937,786 |