Ireland’s population has reached 5 million for the first time in 170 years, a time when the great potato famine ravaged the country.
The population of the republic was estimated at 5.01 million in April, the highest since the 1851 census estimated 5.11 million people, the Central Bureau of Statistics announced on Tuesday.
“It should be noted that this version covers the twelve months to April 2021,” statistician James Hegarty said in a statement. “Therefore, the results of this release reflect some of the demographic and social impacts of COVID-19.”
More than 5,000 have died from COVID during the pandemic, according to the Irish Department of Health website.
One million people died and countless more people left the country in the midst of famine, also known as the Great Famine, from 1845 to 1852, according to The Irish Post.
More than 8 million people lived on the island in the early 1800s, including Northern Ireland, but the population never went back from starvation, the Post said.
The country’s population fell to a low of 2.8 million in 1961, the CSO said.
In 1951, the total population of the entire island of Ireland was 6.6 million, the office said in a statement. The country’s population had fallen to a low of 2.8 million in 1961.
With the latest increase, the island’s population now exceeds 6.8 million, when Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, is included.
The engine of the republic’s growth was 62,500 people who emigrated to the country, about 30,200 who were Irish nationals returning home, according to the CSO. That’s the highest since 2007, Hegarty told the RTE news source.
According to the data, about 54,000 people emigrated in the same period.
The national births of 55,000 people exceeded 32,700 deaths from April 2020 to April 2021, according to the statement.