History of Shetland - Population Development

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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