Changes in Ireland’s population over the past 160 years have been made available online.

Two new digitized atlases show the levels of emigration during the Great Famine, right up until the rise of the Celtic Tiger in 2002, as well as an analysis of Ireland’s population change.

National Centre for Geocomputation, based at National University of Ireland Maynooth, has collated the information which examines 3,452 districts throughout Ireland.

Speaking about the new online database, Professor Stewart Fotheringham said that the impact of mass emigration had not been investigated until now.
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"Previously we have only had broad brushstrokes, and commonly accepted perceptions, such as the west has been hit harder than the east," he said.

"What this work tells us is that the impacts of population decline are much more complex. There has been a genuinely uneven spatial imprint left behind by these population changes."

Researchers discovered that the average population loss during the Famine was 20 percent with higher rates in Connaught counties. Some areas is the west lost between 40 and 60 percent of their population.

Widespread emigration was evident in the 1950s with Connaught and Munster most affected.

Check out both maps here- http://ncg.nuim.ie/historical-atlas