Poverty and Population in Pre-Famine Ireland

The link between demographic pressure and economic conditions in pre-Famine Ireland has long interested economists. This paper re-visits the topic, harnessing the highly disaggregated parish-level data from the 1841 Census of... [ view full abstract ]

The link between demographic pressure and economic conditions in pre-Famine Ireland has long interested economists. This paper re-visits the topic, harnessing the highly disaggregated parish-level data from the 1841 Census of Ireland. Using population per land value as a measure of population pressure, our results indicate that on the eve of the Great Famine of 1846--50, population pressure was positively associated with the prevalence of poor quality housing and negatively related with both male and female literacy rates. A crude calculation of effect sizes suggests that had the Irish population remained at its 1800 level there would have been a 7 percentage point decrease in the number of families living in the lowest quality housing and a 4.4 percentage point increase in literacy rates in 1841. Whilst these results suggest an important role for population pressure in explaining poverty in pre-famine Ireland, a supplementary analysis at the lower-resolution baronial level also finds a role for institutional and other factors.