Census of Ireland

National Archives: Census of Ireland 1911: "the household returns and ancillary records for the censuses of Ireland of 1901 and 1911 are in the custody of the National Archives of Ireland"

About the census: "The National Archives of Ireland has established a research partnership with Library and Archives Canada to facilitate digitisation, indexing and contextualisation of our 1901 and 1911 census records. Library and Archives Canada have a world-wide reputation in the field of document digitisation, and have already successfully digitised and partially indexed the Canadian census returns 1901, 1906 and 1911. As a fellow national archival institution, Library and Archives Canada share our values in relation to preservation of, and access to, our documented heritage."

The records for 1911 are being digitised first, then those for 1901.

1911 will be prepared first because the film is better quality than 1901, and we will be initially focussing on urban areas because of the present difficulty of finding one’s ancestors in cities without a precise address.

The order in which counties will be made available, starting in December 2007, with 1911, is:

• Dublin
• Kerry
• Antrim & Down
• Donegal
• Cork
• Wexford
• Galway
• King’s County (Offaly)
• Limerick
• Mayo
• Waterford
• Armagh
• Carlow
• Cavan
• Clare
• Fermanagh
• Kildare
• Kilkenny
• Leitrim
• Londonderry (Derry)
• Longford
• Louth
• Meath
• Monaghan
• Queen’s County (Laois)
• Roscommon
• Sligo
• Tipperary
• Tyrone
• Westmeath
• Wicklow

About the census: "The returns for 1901 and 1911 are arranged by townland (the smallest division of land) or, in urban areas, by street. The 1901 census lists, for every member of each household; name, age, sex, relationship to head of the household, religion, occupation, marital status and county or country of birth. The census also records an individual’s ability to read or write and ability to speak the Irish language. All of this information is given on Form A of the census, which was filled in and signed by the head of each household. Where the head of the household could not write, his or her mark, usually an X, was recorded and witnessed by the enumerator.

The same information was recorded in the 1911 census, with one significant addition: married women were required to state the number of years they had been married, the number of their children born alive and the number still living.

In addition to returns for every household in the country, both censuses contain returns for police and military barracks, public and private asylums, prisons, hospitals, workhouses, colleges, boarding schools and industrial schools among other institutions.

The returns for both censuses also give details of houses, recording the number of windows, type of roof and number of rooms occupied by each family. Each house is also classified according to its overall condition.The number of out-offices and farm buildings attached to each household is also given. This information is recorded by the enumerator, who provided summaries of the returns for each townland and street, including the religious denomination of occupants. These summaries include a list of heads of household, thus providing a nominal index for each townland or street."

Search the census records for Dublin 1911

Browse by place

You can also search the census records by place, and view your ancestors' neighbors, or get information about the place they lived in. Click here for help with browsing.