Tag: population

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Population change since 1840

Bizarre how there are countries (which are not just city-states) where more people lived 180 years ago than there are now. It’s only 1 country, and the difference is still significant: 8,221,292 in 1840 vs 4,986,525 now. The reasons? Well, first of all, the Great Famine in the 1840s. It resulted in 1 million dying and 1 more million fleeing the country. The next half a century was not that desperate but the conditions on the island were still harsh with rising prices, a lack of jobs and poor harvests. So more people left. There are only around 5 million Irish living in Ireland now, while more than 35 million live in the US, more than 14 in the UK, more than 7 in Australia and more than 4,5 in Canada. So although the population of Ireland itself decreased, the number of Irish people only grew. Or at least descendants of Irish people.

Here’s the source and of course, we don’t exactly know how many people lived in many places in 1840 so although this data might be considered reliable it is not 100% correct.

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Population change in Asia

Although most of the countries in Asia still exhibit population growth of more than 1% per year, some places have seen their rates fall under this mark and some even went into negative numbers. Somewhere the decline is intentional, like in China and their one-child policy (which was scrapped in 2021 and now the government is trying to promote completely the opposite). In other places, like Syria, other more devastating factors are at play. Georgia’s population is also declining, however, the rate of decline between 2015 and 2020 was the lowest since 1990, so there’s still an upward trajectory there. Japan’s population also has begun to decline since 2010.

Although the growth rate of around 1% might sound like not that much, it means that in 70 years the population of the country would double. So if everything stays the same (which, obviously, won’t happen) the population of India in 2100 would be nearing 3 billion people. Not a small change.

The source is here. Leave a comment if you feel like it. If you have any suggestions or requests – here’s where you need to go.