1831 Ireland Census
The 1831 Ireland census was not considered a great success. Officially, it shared its census day with the 1831 census of Great Britain; in practice, the census dragged on over several months, with no fixed start or end date. Also, the census takers (enumerators) believed they were being paid by numbers enumerated, leading to an almost certain (and quite understandable!) exaggeration of the Irish population in 1831.
Despite these drawbacks, the names of all owner/occupiers in Ireland were recorded, at a time when the rest of the UK was still conducting little more than a head count.
1831 Ireland census records online
Surviving records for the 1831 census of Ireland can be searched free of charge at the following websites:
What has survived?
As with all 1821 – 1851 Ireland census records, very few records survived a devastating fire at the Four Courts in Dublin in 1922. The only surviving fragments from the 1831 Ireland census are for Londonderry, plus just three families in Antrim.
1831 Ireland Census Questions
- Name of owner/occupier
- Townland or street
- House number (not to be confused with actual address)
- Numbers of:
- families per house
- family members (split M/F)
- servants (split M/F)
- Religion: Established Church, Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, Other Protestant Dissenters.
Administration
Little is actually known for certain about the administration of this census. It is generally assumed that it followed the format first adopted for the 1821 Ireland census, with enumerators recording census details provided verbally by each owner/occupier in Ireland. These details were recorded initially in special notebooks and later copied by the enumerators into special forms. The ‘Bench of Magistrates’ oversaw the process, aided by Assistant Barristers.
Population
The population recorded for the 1831 census was 7,767,401, up from 6,801,827 recorded in the previous census of 1821. However, as mentioned above, the population figure recorded in the 1831 Ireland census was probably inflated by census takers who believed (not always incorrectly) that they would be paid according to the numbers recorded.
The rate of population growth between the Ireland census of 1821 and 1831 is probably skewed further by the under reporting of population numbers for the 1821 Ireland census. This was due to hostility faced by enumerators in certain areas.
Sources
Ireland. Census Office, W. R. (William Robert) Wilde, and William Tighe Hamilton. Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Take the Census of Ireland for the Year 1841. Dublin: Printed by A. Thom for H. M. Stationery off., 1843.
Ireland. Census Office. Census of Ireland, 1901. Dublin: Printed for H.M. Stationery Off., by Cahill, 190102.
Larcom, Captain, ‘Observations on the census of the population of Ireland in 1841’, Journal of the Statistical Society of London, Vol.6 No. 4 (1843), 327.