Compared to other parts of Europe, Ireland is very sparsely populated. In fact, the population today is significantly lower than it was 160 years ago. In 1841, the population of the island was 8,175,124.
Settlement is concentrated heavily around the east and south coasts.
The major metropolitan areas include Belfast, Cork and Dublin. After Dublin, eastern Ulster has the highest population density in Ireland. A million people live in counties Antrim and Down alone. In the Irish Republic, Dublin county has been growing explosively in recent decades, reaching 1,000,000 people by the 1981 census. Dublin city proper had 860,000 inhabitants at the last census.