People

There are approximately 6 and a half million people living in Ireland. 4.5 million live in the Republic of Ireland, and just under 2 million live in Northern Ireland. The islands population is still less than 150 years ago, when before the terrible famines of the 1840s-50s, the population would have been above 8 million. Due to emigration, about 80 million people in the world claim Irish ancestry. However, in recent years, growth has returned to the island, and so the population has been steadily rising. Also, emigration has slowed to the point where it is vastly outnumbered by immigration into Ireland (10% of the population the Republic is foreign-born), mostly from Britain, Poland, China and Africa. In Dublin, the population overall is about 1.6 million, and in Belfast, it approaches 0.7 million. This makes the most densely populated part of the island the east (2.5 million) and north (2 million). In the west of Ireland population is below 0.5 million, and in the south about 1.2 million.