However, particularly in the West of Ireland the weather can change rapidly and there is always plenty of rain. Population Ireland has been inhabited since Stone Age times. For more than five thousand years peoples moving westwards across the European continent have settled in the country and each new group of immigrants, Celts, Vikings, Normans, English, has contributed to the present population. In 1841, shortly before the Great Famine, the area comprising the present Irish State had a population of over 6.5 million. At the 1996 census, the population of the State was 3,626,087.
Population densities are highest in the east and south.
The Irish Constitution guarantees freedom of conscience and the free profession and practice of religion to all citizens.