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The Historical Statistics Recovery (HSR) initiative began in 2022 in the CSO. The purpose of this initiative is to recover and make accessible high value statistics contained in Irish historical statistical publications. The Census of Ireland, 1911 is the first publication in this initiative where a selection of high value tables are being digitised.
This initiative is driven by volunteers and is led by CSO Statistician, Ciara Hayes (hsr@cso.ie). The volunteers at the CSO have generously dedicated their time to assist with the project. Sincere gratitude is extended to each volunteer for their invaluable contributions, which have been essential to the success of this project.
Urban and rural districts were first established by the Local Government (Ireland) Act 1898 and further abolished under the Local Government Act 1925. Their function was to elect urban and rural district councils and to share responsibilities with a County Council.
A District Electoral Division (DED) is a small administrative unit used in Ireland, originally established in the 19th century for organizing local government and conducting censuses. A DED is a subdivision of urban and rural districts, and typically includes a group of Townlands or city streets. This article uses maps to provide a visual breakdown at DED level of the location of one-room tenements in Ireland.
According to the GeoHive website ''under the 2001 Local Government Act, the names of Wards and the names of District Electoral Divisions are now changed to Electoral Divisions. There are 3,440 Electoral Divisions (EDs) which are the smallest legally defined administrative areas in the State. Electoral divisions are referred to by their established statutory names.''
The General Report from Census 1911, notes ”every dwelling which has a distinct outer door shall be considered as One House, although it may be occupied by several families living in separate apartments, or what are known as tenements, under the same roof”. While tenement living is typically associated with urban centres like Dublin, the 1911 Census also shows their existence in rural areas. These rural one-room dwellings were either rural buildings that were subdivided into tenements, or else they were standalone one-room cabins that were made of mud walls, thatch roofs, and with one window (or none).
In this release, we published four tables detailing one-room tenement data at various levels of land divisions. We decided to combine statistics from Table X and Table VI for ease of use, thus publishing an additional four tables.
The following statistics in relation to one-room tenements can be calculated from the tables provided; The number of occupants residing, the percentage of population residing, the number of tenements per acre, the concentration of one room tenements per 100 houses inhabited.
The concentration of one-room tenements per 100 houses inhabited was calculated by dividing the number of tenements occupied, provided by Table X, by the total number of houses inhabited in the same area, provided by Table VI, and then multiplying the result by 100.
The Census of Population of Ireland records the number of people resident in the country on that night. Censuses have been taking place for thousands of years all over the world, with the first known census undertaken nearly 6000 years ago by the Babylonians in 3800 BC. There are records to suggest that this census was undertaken every 6 or 7 years and counted the number of people and livestock, as well as quantities of butter, honey, milk, wool and vegetables.
The most famous historic census like exercise in Europe is the Domesday Book which was undertaken by William the Conqueror in 1086. The Domesday Book has been digitised to preserve its historical value and is available in an accessible way to all.
The Down Survey of Ireland (1656-1658) was undertaken by William Petty with the purpose of transferring land ownership to Cromwellian soldiers and supporters. This census like survey was the first ever detailed land survey on a national scale in the world. The data in this survey has been digitised and is available online.
Ireland has been conducting its own full Census of Population since 1821, providing a remarkable longitudinal dataset to gain an understanding of how the country has evolved, and how people lived back then.
On the 5th December 1991, Mr Thomas P Linehan, a former director of CSO Ireland, read his paper Census Through History before a meeting of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland (SSISI). The paper provides a historical record of the Census in Ireland.
Table X from the Census of Ireland, 1911 is now available on PxStat with an interactive map. The map is for display purposes only and legal boundaries past or present cannot and should not be inferred from it. Taillte Éireann provided information for 26 counties and OpenStreetMap (OSM) provided information for the six remaining counties on the island of Ireland in 1911. The CSO made slight amendments to align the Census publication at that time to incorporate the six counties. We would also like to thank Mike Murphy from the Department of Geography, University College Cork who provided a paper map of DEDs on the island of Ireland in 1935. This paper map was used for validation of DED boundaries in the 1911 interactive map.
The digitised map and associated background information has also been made available.
Taillte Éireann provided 1911 boundary maps to the CSO with the following disclaimer: "This cartographic data is a digital representation of the 1911 ED and Poor Law Union datasets. It is for display purposes only and legal boundaries past or present cannot and should not be inferred from this map."
OpenStreetMap shapefiles were provided in accordance with their copyright requirements.
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