Abstract
One of the most striking and well-known features of Irish demographic change over the last century and a half is the dramatic decline of the population following the Great Famine in the 1840’s. In 1851 the population of what became the Republic of Ireland excluding Northern Ireland stood at 5.1 million. The population continued to decline right through to the early 1960’s. Since then the population has increased, although this increase has not been continuous since there was a slight decline of the population over the period 1986 to 1991. While the initial decline in the population in the 1840’s was due to high mortality due to the famine, this was followed by a strong and steady pattern of emigration, which was only broken by the two World Wars. In contrast to other European countries, Ireland maintained a high birth rate right up to the early 1980’s.
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Morgenroth, E. (2005). Demographic Transition, Migration and Regional Economic Development in Ireland. In: Dienel, C. (eds) Abwanderung, Geburtenrückgang und regionale Entwicklung. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-80776-2_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-80776-2_16
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