PRONI Homepage

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE of NORTHERN IRELAND


Surviving Census Material
The first successfully completed census of Ireland took place in 1821. Unfortunately it, and almost all the census returns after that up until 1891, were destroyed, either by government order during the First World War or were lost in the destruction of the Public Record Office in Dublin, in 1922. A few remnants remain of the 1821 - 1851 censuses, but that of 1901 is the earliest and most complete census of Ireland that survives.
1901 Census


The National Archives of Ireland
The National Archives of Ireland (Bishop Street, Dublin) hold the original census returns for both 1901 and 1911 but the 1911 census is not available in PRONI. They also hold the original fragments of the 19th century census returns.
The National Archives of Ireland homepage

No manuscript returns survive for 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1891. There are some returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 covering parts of counties Antrim, Cavan, Cork, Fermanagh, Galway, King's Co. (Offaly), Londonderry (Derry), Meath and Waterford, and there is a list of names of heads of household in the returns of 1851 for Belfast City and Dublin City (see the list of 19th century census returns in the Reading Room or consult The 1851 Dublin City Census, Chart's Index of Heads of Household CD-ROM compiled and edited by Seán Magee, Eneclann, 2001). There are also census search forms for each county giving the results of searches made in the returns of 1841 and 1851 for pension purposes (see separate list for each county available in the Reading Room), and some other copies made from the returns of 1821-1851 (see list of 19th century census returns - miscellaneous copies and certified copies available in the Reading Room).

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