The census counts Ireland's missing millions
1851 · Event
The 1851 census finds 6.6 million people where 8.2 million stood ten years before — a country short a fifth of itself, a million dead and more gone overseas. The population keeps falling for a century; Ireland today remains one of the very few countries on earth with fewer people than in 1841.
On these timelines: The Irish Famine, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, Master, United Kingdom (combined)
More from The Irish Famine
- Great Famine of Ireland (1845)
- The potato blight reaches Ireland (1845)
- Black '47 (1847)
- The coffin-ship emigration (1846)
- London winds down famine relief (1847)
- The Gregory clause (1847)
- Young Irelander Rebellion (1848)
Around 1851
- Italian unification (Risorgimento) (1859)
- Indian Rebellion of 1857 (1857)
- Crimean War (1853)
- Taiping Rebellion (1851)
- American Civil War (1861)
- Revolutions of 1848 (1848)
- On the Origin of Species (1859)
- Pasteur develops germ theory of disease (1861)
- Perry Expedition to Japan (1853)
- Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (1861)