Population Development
The population development on Shetland has through the times been affected by deaths at sea and epidemics. Smallpox afflicted the islands in the 17th and 18th centuries, but as vaccines became common after 1760 the population increased to 40,000 in 1861. The population increase led to a lack of food and many young men went away to serve in the British merchant fleet. 100 years later the islands' population was more than halved. This decrease was mainly caused by the large number of Shetlandic men being lost at sea during the two world wars and the waves of emigration in the 1920s and 1930s. Now more people of Shetlandic background live in Canada, Australia and New Zealand than in Shetland.
| District | Population 1961 | Population 1971 | Population 1981 | Population 1991 | Population 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bound Skerry (& Grunay) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Bressay | 269 | 248 | 334 | 352 | 384 |
| Bruray | 34 | 35 | 33 | 27 | 26 |
| East Burra | 92 | 64 | 78 | 72 | 66 |
| Fair Isle | 64 | 65 | 58 | 67 | 69 |
| Fetlar | 127 | 88 | 101 | 90 | 86 |
| Foula | 54 | 33 | 39 | 40 | 31 |
| Housay | 71 | 63 | 49 | 58 | 50 |
| Mainland | 13,282 | 12,944 | 17,722 | 17,562 | 17,550 |
| Muckle Flugga | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Muckle Roe | 103 | 94 | 99 | 115 | 104 |
| Noss | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Papa Stour | 55 | 24 | 33 | 33 | 25 |
| Trondra | 20 | 17 | 93 | 117 | 133 |
| Unst | 1,148 | 1,124 | 1,140 | 1,055 | 720 |
| Vaila | 9 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 2 |
| West Burra | 561 | 501 | 767 | 817 | 753 |
| Whalsay | 764 | 870 | 1,031 | 1,041 | 1,589 |
| Yell | 1,155 | 1,143 | 1,191 | 1,075 | 957 |
| Total | 17,814 | 17,327 | 22,768 | 22,522 | 22,990 |
Read more about this topic: History Of Shetland
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