Sources: W.E. Vaughan and A.J. Fitzpatrick, Irish Historical Statistics: Population 1821-1971 (1978) ; CSO ; and NISRA
If blurry, it is also posted on Twitter and Imgur.
The population numbers are for the island of Ireland. This is for continuity (and simplicity!), as pre-partition figures are on a 32 county basis. It is all census data.
Three things:
- The earlier 19th century figures should to be treated with some caution and viewed generally rather than specifically. There’s a clear bias for the first five year cohort (i.e. 10-14, 20-24, 30-34 …). I presume this is because some did not know their date of birth so chose (or were given) a rounded age in the tens (i.e. 10, 20, 30 …).
- Ireland’s population trend of decline in the century after the late 19th century is unique, and the island’s population remains someway off its pre-Famine peak.
- Notable that it is the children at the bottom of the 1971 and 1981 slides who were to first to fully make it up the pyramid. Before then the adult population is usually smaller than previous population of children suggests. Lower child mortality might partly explain, but emigration is surely the main reason.
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