Saturday marks 100 years since the first census was carried out in the Irish Free State.<\/p>\n
The entire database is now available to access online, with an exhibition also being launched at Dublin Castle.<\/p>\n
The census shows a population of under 3 million people, a drop of more 5 per cent from the 32 county census in 1911.<\/p>\n
Director of the National Archives of Ireland, Orlaith McBride, said there is a wealth of information available.<\/p>\n
“With the personal information being released, we’re able to get an even better understanding in terms of the way people lived, how they lived, where they lived,” she said.<\/p>\n
“So we have categories like age, occupation, religion, birth place, but also for the first time we have details on employers.<\/p>\n
“So we’ll be able to get a real sense of, particularly in urban or market towns, where people worked and who were the employers.”<\/p>\n
The 1926 Irish census recorded a population of 2,971,992, a decrease of 5.3 per cent from the 1911 census.<\/p>\n
Census 1926 is stored in 1,299 boxes, containing over 700,000 return sheets.<\/p>\n