Ireland housing stock from 170 years ago (country, people, houses, percentage)

[PacoMartin]

Ireland is unique country in all the world in that it's present day population is smaller than it was in 1841(right before the famine). The Republic's present day population of 4.6 million is down from 6.5 million in 1841 (plus uncounted thousands).

In contrast the population of USA has gone up by a multiple of 18.5 , so homes from 1840 or earlier are a very small percentage of the present stock. Northern Ireland regained it's 1841 population by 1995 and has since gotten larger.

Dublin county is the only county in Ireland whose population did not go down after the famine. If people died, they were replaced by new people from the countryside.

With all the social change since 1841, I am wondering what percentage of the homes in present day Ireland were built in 1841 or earlier? Would you guess 10% or closer to 30%. I am guessing that a number higher than that would be improbable. Are the old homes valued by the Irish, or are they all torn down?

Given the relative poverty of Ireland at the time, I suppose many homes were destroyed.

Some of the counties in Republic of Ireland have only a small population today compared to 1841. So more specifically if you know anything about the counties like Cork, which lost 1/3 million of it's population in 170 years, I would expect that the old homes are more likely to be preserved.

Dublin county which has 3.5 times the population it did in 1841 would need many new homes, but they have more money for preservation. Kildare county (likewise) is much larger today than it was in 1841. All other counties have about the same population or dramatically less people.

Change of population (in thousands) from 1841 to 2011 for the 26 counties of Republic of Ireland
899 Dublin
96 Kildare
10 Wicklow
1 Meath
-5 Louth
-31 Carlow
-55 Westmeath
-57 Wexford
-70 Offaly
-73 Laois
-76 Longford
-82 Waterford
-107 Kilkenny
-115 Sligo
-123 Leitrim
-135 Donegal
-139 Limerick
-140 Monaghan
-148 Kerry
-169 Clare
-170 Cavan
-189 Galway
-190 Roscommon
-257 Mayo
-276 Tipperary
-336 Cork

[Hemingway.ie]

Interesting......

The home I was reared in is in Wicklow Town and the deed title states that it was built in 1860. There are many similar era houses in the town. They are mainly terraced dwellings with yards as opposed to gardens and are situated near the harbour area and the main street of the town.

Most other dwellings were built in more recent times.

[Mac15]

The famine didnt really affect us up here. The majority of our population is new. I dont think we lost much population and I find it hard to believe that our population is only reaching famine levels in 1995. Alot of our population drop was to do with immigration. Not the famine.

The most of our houses are new. There are some houses from 1800s but they are mansions

[PacoMartin]

Originally Posted by owenc

The famine didnt really affect us up here. The majority of our population is new. I dont think we lost much population and I find it hard to believe that our population is only reaching famine levels in 1995. Alot of our population drop was to do with immigration. Not the famine.

The most of our houses are new. There are some houses from 1800s but they are mansions

I checked the records of Northern Ireland and I did see a 25% loss from 1841 -1901 but a 25% loss from
1841-1851. I did try and steer the question towards Republic of Ireland.

Pop N.I. Year
1,649,000 1841
1,649,100 1995
1,806,900 2011

In Rep. Ireland only Dublin County did not lose significant population from 1841-1851. I don't know how many people died and were replaced by people fleeing the famine in more rural areas.

Since many countries/kingdoms do not have the same boundaries as they did in 1840 it is not easy to check, but I believe that Ireland is unique in all the world for having fewer people than it did 170 years ago. I was wondering how that affected the housing stock.

I realize that even without any population change people build new homes. Very often it is easier to build new homes than keep on renovating. Plus with the 19th century land consolidation large property owners tended to destroy homes because they want the people to leave their ancestral property.

In the post WWII world, Northern Ireland was one of the first countries (or consituent countries) to stop growing in population in the 1970's (for about 7-8 years), but they quickly picked up (presumably from increased immigration).

Ireland is now projected to grow with steady immigration to get most or all of it's 1841 population back in little more than 2 centuries (in the 2040's).

The first country to stop growing and begin shrinking never to rise again was Hungary in 1981. By the mid 1990's many countries have stopped growing in population, including nearly every country in Eastern Europe. Notably Japan stopped growing a few years ago.

Of course the biggest impact to worldwide population and economy is that China is not expected to grow more than 3.4% larger before it starts decreasing.