Shetland's Population in the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

This paper investigates Rev Alexander's Webster's demographic methodology in his calculation of the population of Shetland in 1755 and his conclusions, which are problematic. It sets them within a wider review of the population data for Shetland up to the 1831 Government census, the latest for which no detailed information survives. This is a local study limited to one county, but by showing how difficult it is to find reliable evidence at a parochial level, it raises questions with implications for the analysis of population throughout Scotland and elsewhere. This study shows the need to look behind the frequently quoted statistics and question the sources. It is a case study which shows that the complications of attempting to establish the accuracy of data at this detailed level encourage scepticism about national data and the conclusions based on them.