The first modern day national Census in England was taken in 1801, the year of the Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The first attempt at a national census in Ireland was made in 1813, with responsibility for organising the census given to the Grand Juries of each county. After two years the efforts were abandoned due to a lack of infrastructure and poor organisation. A new Act of 1815 transferred responsibility to Magistrates at Quarter Sessions and Assistant Barristers.
The intention was to take a census every ten years and so the next attempt in Ireland was in 1821. The objective was to provide information about the population, listing everyone by name, wherever they happened to be on the Sunday night of the census, which was regarded as the most efficient way to count everyone only once. Despite some public resistance and confusion over boundaries, the 1821 census was completed and some results were published in 1823.
New methodologies were developed for the 1831 census. Individual Enumerators were assigned to districts and they delivered a form to each household in the country. Instruction was given to each head of household to record certain details of everyone who slept there that night. These forms, known as schedules, were then collected by the enumerators in each district within a few days. However, Ireland’s Enumerators believed they would be paid based on the number of individuals recorded, which compromised the accuracy and quality of the data.
The 1841 Census was a turning point in Irish census history. Between June 1824 and 1842 the entire country was mapped on a scale of six inches to one mile for the purposes of raising taxes. These Ordnance Surveys maps were remarkably accurate and Ireland was the first country in the world to be so accurately mapped. Enumerators were selected from the Constabulary, the trained police force, and Family Return forms were introduced and filled out by heads of households to include names, ages, religion, literacy, and occupation. The resulting reports were praised for their accuracy, clarity, and depth.
In 1841 the Population of Ireland was 8,175,238
The 1841 census recorded the peak of Ireland’s population at 8,175,238 before the famine of 1847-1851. Over the next seventy years, the population had fallen 54% to 4,390,219 according to the 1911 census.
The Registrar-General of Marriages Dr. William Wilde supervised the 1851 Census. The 1841 and 1851 censuses listed household members who had died since the previous census, as well as those who were alive but not present on census night, in some cases recording where they had emigrated to.
From 1861 to 1911, censuses were conducted every ten years under the supervision of the Registrar General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths. The 1861 census was the first one to include the Military personnel stationed throughout the country, although they were only identified by the rank and initials.
One interesting and helpful addition to the 1911 census that researchers appreciate was the questions on how many years the couple was married, how many children they had up to that point, and how many were still alive on census night. This invaluable information can aid researchers of family trees to know how many children they are looking for, how many have died, and how many have left home to marry and/or emigrate.
The Destruction of our Census Records by Accident and by Design
Despite the successful completion of eight census from 1841 to 1911 inclusive, genealogy and local history researchers will know just how frustrating, depressing even, it is to find only individual census records from 1901 and 1911 census have survived. The fate of the census records for other years was as follows:
- 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 returns were mostly destroyed in the now infamous 1922 fire at the Public Records Office, with only a few fragments surviving as follows;
- Antrim (1851)
- Belfast city (one ward, 1851)
- Cavan (1821, 1841)
- Cork (1841)
- Dublin city (index to heads of household only, 1851)
- Fermanagh (1821, 1841, 1851)
- Galway (1813 numerical returns for Longford barony; 1821)
- King’s County (Offaly) (1821)
- Londonderry (Derry) (1831-1834)
- Meath (1821)
- Waterford (1841)
- 1861 and 1871 census returns were deliberately destroyed shortly after collection;
- 1881 and 1891 returns were pulped during Work War 1, due to paper shortages.
The deliberate destruction of the 1861 and 1871 census returns was done to satisfy an undertaken given to the public, both in Great Britain and in Ireland that the returns would not be used for the “gratification of curiosity.” The government had pledged that the detailed individual schedules would be published only in aggregate form and not used for intrusive purposes.
However, in Great Britain there was a process of transcription in place, where some of the information from the individual schedules was copied into enumeration books. Once copied, the individual schedules were destroyed, and it is these enumeration books for Great Britain’s census of the 19th century that can be consulted today. In Ireland, no such process of transcription was in place, and whether by accident or design, the Irish census records data was destroyed and lost forever. The error was repeated for the 1881 and 1901 census records which were recycled and pulped for paper during WW1.
Ireland’s 1901 and 1911 Census Records are unique in the level of detail
Ireland’s census records are not available for public inspection for one hundred years, and so the only census records open to search are those from 1901 and 1911. There were first made available for online inspection in 2011, and despite the limitations of the software used (for example, spellings must be precise and match what was recorded in the census.) However, while Ireland does not have the records from previous censuses, what we have preserved for 1901 and 1911 is the individual schedules, thereby providing more information than the enumeration summaries of Great Britain disclose. The Irish records disclose the class of house, the number of rooms and windows, the type of walls and roof, and the quantity and description of outbuildings, and the name of their landlord. They provide a unique insight into the living conditions of your ancestors’ vis a vis their neighbours.
The 1926 Irish Census will be released in April 2026
The 1926 Census was the first one conducted on April 18th by the Irish Free State and the 26-county census will be available for public inspection next April. A census on the same day was also conducted in the six counties of Northern Ireland for the first time.
We know from the census summary data already published that the population in the 26 counties in 1926 was 2,971,992, down 5.3% from the population of 3,139,688 recorded living in the 26 counties in 1911.
Subsequent censuses in the 26-county Ireland were conducted in 1936, 1946, 1951, 1956, 1961, 1966, 1971, 1979 (the 1976 census was cancelled as an economic measure), 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2016, and 2022 (delayed a year because of Covid restrictions).