Some Irish population problems

Abstract

There is a widespread belief that the adjective “Irish” is a general synonym for “unique”. The foundation for this belief is nowhere stronger than in the field of demography. During the past century, while the populations of the countries of Western Europe and of the British Dominions have been rising, that of the twenty-six counties which now constitute the Irish Republic has fallen from 6,529,000 in 1841 to 2,961,000 in 1951. As compared with these other countries, the Irish Republic has the lowest marriage rate, the highest age at marriage, the highest fertility rate and the highest emigration rate. A Commission on Emigration and other Population Problems was appointed in April, 1948, to examine, inter alia, the social and economic effects of the birth, death, emigration and marriage rates, and to investigate the causes and consequences of the present level and trend of population. Its Report, a limited stencilled edition of which appeared last autumn, provides an exhaustive statistical review of Irish demographic history from the Great Famine to the Census of 1951.

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Notes on contributors

W. J. L. Ryan

Review of the Report of the Commission on Emigration and other Population Problems, Stationery Office, Dublin, 1955, and The Vanishing Irish, edited by John A. O'Brien, W. H. Allen, London, 1954, pp. 240, 128. 6d.