Life in 1916 Ireland: Stories from statistics

Interactive table: Statbank link

Photo: Group of children commissioned by Fr. Coghlan, 1915

• The population of Ireland grew from 3,139,688 people in 1911 to 4,588,252 by 2011, an increase of 46%.
• The 5 counties with the largest increases in population between 1911 and 2011 were all in Leinster.  The population of Dublin county more than quadrupled, from 172,394 people in 1911 to 745,457 by 2011. The population of Kildare more than tripled over the same period while Meath had a population increase of 183%. There were also large increases in population in Wicklow (125%) and Louth (93%).
• In Munster there was a drop in population in Kerry of 9% but the other counties in Munster saw population growth, with rates of above 30% in Waterford, Limerick and Cork.
• All counties in Connacht, with the exception of Galway, had population decreases between 1911 and 2011.
• The three counties in Ulster had a drop in population between 1911 and 2011, with a decrease of 20% in Cavan and a drop of 15% in Monaghan

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Photo: Members of Congested Districts  Board receiving directions from a local women

• The structure of the Irish population has changed markedly between 1911 and 2011.
• In 1911 29.3% of the Irish population was aged under 15 years, while by 2011 this had dropped to 21.3%.
• In 1911 18.2% of the population was aged 15-24 and by 2011 this had decreased to 12.6%.
• Thus in 1911 just under half the population was aged under 25 but this had dropped to 33.9% by 2011.
• 15.4% of the Irish population was aged between 45 and 64 in 1911 and this had increased to 22.7% by 2011, while 10.5% of the population in 1911 was aged 65 or over and this had increased slightly to 11.7% by 2011.

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• In this table we take the 1911 population, age them by 15 years and then compare them to the 1926 population. (Thus the 155,887 young boys aged 0-4 in 1911 would have been aged 15-19 by 1926. We compare the 155,887 figure to the actual number of 15-19 year old males in 1926 which was 146,047 and this gives a difference of 9,840 boys.)
• The columns in the table above with the "Actual 1926 population less projected 1926 population" shows that the age groups from 5-9 to those aged 30-34 in 1911 suffered very large losses betwwen 1911 and 1926.
• For example, there were 155,523 young men aged 15-19 in 1911 but by 1926 there were 92,502 men aged 30-34, meaning that 63,021 young men need to be accounted for by either death or emigration. There were 147,920 young women aged 15-19 in 1911 and by 1926 there were 90,798 women aged 30-34, leaving 57,122 young women needing to be accounted for either by death or emigration.
• The column "Actual 1926 population less projected 1926 population" shows that more males than females are absent for those aged between 10 and 24 in 1911. For example, for those aged 20-24 in 1911,  53,939 males are absent by 1926 compared to 39,360 females. Part of this difference must be due to deaths of Irish Men in World War I. There is no consensus on how many men from the island of Ireland died fighting in this war but at least 35,000 and possibly as many as 49,000 are believed to have died.
• Another cause of deaths in the period between 1911 and 1926 was the Spanish flu pandemic which was responsible for about 20,000 deaths on the island of Ireland in 1918/19.

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