The increase in England and Wales is almost double that of Ireland. The question is why? Because England and Wales have a greater area of cultivatable land and is therefore able to feed a larger population. Also, Ireland was loosing a portion of its young men to England, Wales and Scotland as they went in such of seasonal work. A small number of men also emigrated further a field before the famine, but these were mainly single artisans.
The period between 1846 and 1851 sees the biggest decline in population. From eight million, two hundred, and eighty eight thousand, to six million, five hundred, and fourteen thousand. It is hard to establish exactly what happened to this missing population because of problems with reliable birth and death figures. However, I think it is fair to assume that during this period a large proportion of people died. Many historians sight the figure of 1 million. If we take this to be true then seven hundred thousand people are unaccounted for. A large proportion of this group immigrated to England, Scotland, the United States, South America, and Europe is search of a new life. Others continually travelled in search of seasonal work, and this group are particually hard to trace.
The period between 1851 and 1901 sees the steady decline in population as people continue to emigrate. What is especially significant about this, is that after the famine it was whole families who emigrated and not just young men. In this way whole Irish communities were set up in port towns and cities. Fertility also fell.
If the great Irish famine of 1846 had not occurred then I propose that the Irish population would have declined by the end of the nineteenth century anyway. This is because better opportunities were available abroad, another potato rot occurred in 1863 and another famine during the 1880s. Also the decline in fertility, while not as noticeable as England would have occurred as families realised that a better standard of living could be achieved with fewer mouths to feed.
