Ireland's population trend goes digital

Changes in Ireland's population over the last 160 years have been mapped out on-line.

Two digitised atlases devised by the National Centre for Geocomputation at NUI Maynooth reveal the levels of emigration throughout the Great Famine and the partition of the island up to the Celtic Tiger boom.

The atlases chart the recent populations of all counties relative to their maximum of 1841.

Leitrim is lowest at 17 per cent, while Dublin is greatest at 303 per cent.

Researchers also found the average population loss during famine times was 20 per cent - but the figure rose to 30 per cent in all Connacht counties with many local areas in the west of Ireland losing between 40 and 60 per cent of their populations.