Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/286

250 Divided into six classes after the same method as that adopted in England and Scotland, the people of Ireland were found to be distributed as follows at the census of 1861:—

Comparing the relative numbers under each of the six classes in Ireland with those given for England and Wales, the following are the per-centages:—

The movement of the population of Ireland since the beginning of the century was very different from that of England and Scotland. There was an increase, slow at first, and then rapid, from 1801 to 1841, and a decrease, more rapid than the previous increase, from 1841 to 1861. At the census of 1801 the population of Ireland was 5,395,456; in 1811, it had risen to 5,937,856; in 1821 to 6,801,827; in 1831 to 7,767,401; and in 1841 to 8,175,124. At the next census, that of 1851, the population was found to have sunk to 6,552,385, representing a decline of nearly twenty per cent., while the following, the last census returns, showed another decline of above twelve per cent. The decline during the two decennial periods was spread unequally over the four provinces, as illustrated in the subjoined table, the totals of which are exclusive of the men of the