In 1841 the population of Ireland was given as 8,175,124. By 1851, after the famine, the population had dropped by 1622739 to 6,552,385.
"The census commissioners calculated that, at the normal rate of increase, the total should have been 9,018,799 so the CALCULATED loss of at least 2.5 million persons had taken place, when in reality the
difference is 1,622,739 MATHEMATICALLY .
Emigration was at its minimum in 1838, the number that left our shores in that year being only 14,700; it rose in 1841, namely, 71,392. It rose still higher in 1842, the emigrants of that year being set down at
89,686. The year 1843 was named by O'Connell the Repeal year; the people were filled with the hope of soon seeing a parliament in College Green,and to this fact may probably, be attributed the great falling off in emigration; the number for that year being only 37,509.
It increased in 1844 to 54,289; and in 1845--the eve of the Famine, to 74,969 persons 1846 = 105955.. total of 433810 leaving 1189929 from which has to be taken the figures for 1847 215444/.. 1848 178519/..1849 214,425/ ..1850 209,054/ ...1851 est 1000000 of the 257,372 (pre census date) totalling 1,350,892...
Balance 271,847 Deaths.
The Government was of opinion that emigration, left to itself, would transfer the starving people to the United States and British America, as quickly as they could be provided for in those countries.
This calculation turned out to be correct enough, as the following
figures will show:-
Emigration from Ireland in the year 1845 is set down at 74,969; it increased in 1846 to 105,955, although the Famine had not to the full extent turned the minds of the people to seek homes in the New
World. The emigration of 1847 more than doubled that of 1846, being 215,444; it fell in 1848 to 178,159, but in 1849 the emigration of 1847 was repeated, the emigrants of that year being 214,425, of which 2,219were orphan girls from the Workhouses. The magnitude of the exodus was maintained in 1850, that year giving 209,054 voluntary exiles; but the emigration in 1851, which year closed the decade, quite outstripped that of any previous year, the figure in that year standing at 257,372.