MINISTER FOR ARTS and Culture Patrick O’Donovan will bring a memo to Cabinet today outlining the next steps in the digitalisation of the 1926 Census. 

The Government intends for the 1926 Census website – the first Census in the Irish Free State – to go live on 18 April 2026. 

It will enable people to search and view the individual returns of the 1926 Census free of charge, making available for the first time the personal information related to the almost 3m people living in Ireland on the night of 18 April 1926.

Personal information entered on individual census forms can be published 100 years after a census is taken.

Today’s Cabinet update comes two and a half years after €5m in funding for the project was announced by then Arts and Culture Minister Catherine Martin. 

At the time the project was announced, the 1926 Census was stored in 1,344 boxes, containing over 700,000 return sheets, each measuring approximately 630mm x 290mm (A3 is 297x430mm).

The digitalisation work is being undertaken by the National Archives of Ireland in close cooperation with the Central Statistics Office (CSO).

On that night 

The 1926 census collected 21 data sets such as name, age, sex, marital status, religion, housing conditions and ability to speak Irish.

On the night of 18 April 1926, the population of Ireland was 2,971,992 with 49% female and 51% male.  

At the previous census in 1911, the population was 3,139,688, demonstrating a reduction of 5.3% in the population in 15 years to 1926.

Dublin was the only county to record an increase in population of almost 6% in the intercensal period, while all other counties recorded a loss.

In 1926, a total of 92.6% of the population was Catholic and 18.3% could speak Irish.

Of those employed, 51% were in agricultural occupations, 4% were fisherman, 14% were in manufacturing and 7% were domestic servants. Details are published on the CSO website.