From the 17th cent. the sources for demographic study improve. The high Tudor growth rate was not sustained throughout the whole 17th cent., when emigration, civil war, and plague dampened the increase. The population of England and Wales rose to about 5.4million by 1656 and then steadied, or even declined slightly. Scotland was affected by plague in the 1640s, heavy emigration to Ulster, and by severe famine in the 1690s. Its population in 1700 was probably little higher than in 1600: Edinburgh, by far the largest town, had between 30,000 and 40,000 people. Despite heavy warfare, [b]the Irish population may have doubled by 1687 and reached well over 2 million by 1700, with Dublin beginning to grow rapidly[/b]
