Editing Montserrat (section)

== Demographics ==
{{Main|Demographics of Montserrat}}
[[File:Montserrat population.svg|thumb|The 1997 eruption lead to a dramatic decrease in population.]]
Montserrat had a population of 7,119 in 1842.<ref>{{cite book |title=The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol.IV |date=1848 |publisher=Charles Knight |location=London |page=772}}</ref>

The island had a population of 5,879 (according to a 2008 estimate). An estimated 8,000 refugees left the island ([[Montserratians in the United Kingdom|primarily to the UK]]) following the resumption of volcanic activity in July 1995; the population was 13,000 in 1994. The 2011 Montserrat census indicated a population of 4,922.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gov.ms/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Montserrat-At-A-Glance.pdf |title=Census 2011 At a Glance |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |year=2011 |website=Government of Montserrat |publisher=Statistics Department, Montserrat |access-date=23 November 2016 |archive-date=3 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190403071254/http://www.gov.ms/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Montserrat-At-A-Glance.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> In early 2016, the estimated population had reached nearly 5,000 primarily due to immigration from other islands.<ref name=2016Pop>{{cite web |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/2/14/two-decades-after-volcano-eruption-many.html |title=20 years after Montserrat volcano eruption, many still in shelter housing |first=Ryan |last=Schuessler |date=14 February 2016 |publisher=Al Jazeera |access-date=23 November 2016 |quote=Montserrat's population has grown to nearly 5,000 people since the eruption — mostly due to an influx of immigrants from other Caribbean nations. |archive-date=27 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127131020/http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2016/2/14/two-decades-after-volcano-eruption-many.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Age structure (2003 estimates):

* up to 14 years: 23.4% (male 1,062; female 1,041)
* 15 to 64 years: 65.3% (male 2,805; female 3,066)
* 65 years and over: 11.3% (male 537; female 484)

The median age of the population was 28.1 as of 2002 and the sex ratio was 0.96 males/female as of 2000.

The population growth rate is 6.9% (2008 est.), with a birth rate of 17.57 births/1,000 population, death rate of 7.34 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.), and net migration rate of 195.35/1,000 population (2000 est.) There is an infant mortality rate of 7.77 deaths/1000 live births (2003 est.). The life expectancy at birth is 75.9 years: 76.8 for males and 75.0 for females (2023 est.).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Life expectancy at birth - The World Factbook |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/life-expectancy-at-birth/ |access-date=2024-04-03 |website=www.cia.gov |archive-date=12 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210212221326/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/life-expectancy-at-birth |url-status=live }}</ref> Globally, only Montserrat has a higher life expectancy for males than females, a difference of 1.8 years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-01-22 |title=List of Countries by Life Expectancy 2023 {{!}} life —— lines |url=https://life---lines.com/articles/list-of-countries-by-life-expectancy/ |access-date=2024-04-03 |language=en-US |archive-date=3 April 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240403155555/https://life---lines.com/articles/list-of-countries-by-life-expectancy/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The total fertility rate is 1.8 children born/woman (2003 est.).

According to the Montserrat government's 2024 population census, the island has a total population of 4,386, a 10.9% drop compared to 2011.<ref>{{Cite web |last=de Shong |first=Dillon |date=2024-04-21 |title=Census shows Montserrat's population is declining |url=https://caribbean.loopnews.com/content/census-shows-montserrats-population-declining |access-date=2024-07-19 |website=Loop Caribbean News |language=en}}</ref>

===Language===
[[English language|English]] is the sole official language and the main spoken language. A few thousand people speak [[Montserrat Creole]], a dialect of [[Leeward Caribbean Creole English]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYGQfiD_1oC&dq=montserrat+languages+creole&pg=PT13587|title=Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics|date=24 November 2005|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=9780080547848|via=Google Books|access-date=22 October 2022|archive-date=5 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230805201033/https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYGQfiD_1oC&dq=montserrat+languages+creole&pg=PT13587|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Montserrat-island-West-Indies|title=Montserrat &#124; Facts, Map, & History &#124; Britannica|website=www.britannica.com|access-date=28 June 2019|archive-date=17 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221017182618/https://www.britannica.com/place/Montserrat-island-West-Indies|url-status=live}}</ref> Historically, [[Irish language|Irish Gaelic]] was spoken, but has disappeared from use.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.caribbeanandco.com/irish-in-montserrat/|title=Timeline, History, and Cultural Legacy of the Irish in Montserrat - Black Irish of Montserrat|first=Ursula Petula|last=Barzey|date=30 August 2022|access-date=10 October 2022|archive-date=10 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221010124533/https://www.caribbeanandco.com/irish-in-montserrat/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Irish language in Montserrat ====
The Irish constituted the largest proportion of the white population from the founding of the colony in 1628. Most were [[indentured servant]]s; others were merchants or plantation owners. The geographer Thomas Jeffrey claimed in ''The West India Atlas'' (1780) that the majority of those on Montserrat were either Irish or of Irish descent, "so that the use of the [[Irish language]] is preserved on the island, even among the Negroes."<ref>Cited in: {{cite book |last=Truxes |first=Thomas M. |year=2004 |title=Irish-American Trade, 1660-1783 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=100}} See also: {{cite book |title=The West India Atlas or, A Compendious Description of the West-Indies |author=The late Thomas Jefferys, Geographer to the King |publisher=Robert Sayer and John Bennett |location=Fleet Street, London |year=1780}}</ref>

African slaves and Irish indentured servants of all classes were in constant contact, with sexual relationships being common and a population of mixed descent appearing as a consequence.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rodgers |first=Nini |title=The Irish in the Caribbean 1641-1837: An Overview |journal=Irish Migration Studies in Latin America |date=November 2007 |volume=5 |number=3 |pages=145–156 |url=http://www.irishargentine.org/0711rodgers1.htm |access-date=25 March 2016 |archive-date=27 September 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160927012637/http://www.irishargentine.org/0711rodgers1.htm |url-status=usurped }}</ref> The Irish were also prominent in Caribbean commerce, with their merchants importing Irish goods such as beef, pork, butter and herring, and also importing slaves.<ref>{{cite book |last=McGarrity |first=Maria |year=2008 |title=Washed by the Gulf Stream: The Historic and Geographic Relation of Irish and Caribbean Literature |publisher=Associated University Presses |pages=33–34 |isbn=9780874130287}}</ref>

There is indirect evidence that the use of the Irish language continued in Montserrat until at least the middle of the nineteenth century. The [[County Kilkenny]] diarist and Irish scholar [[Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin]] noted in 1831 that he had heard that Irish was still spoken in Montserrat by both black and white inhabitants.<ref name="De Bhaldraithe">{{cite book |editor-last=De Bhaldraithe |editor-first=Tomás |editor-link=Tomás de Bhaldraithe |year=1979 |title=[[Cín Lae Amhlaoibh]] |publisher=An Clóchomhar Tta |location=[[Baile Átha Cliath]] |page=84 |chapter=Entry 2700, 1 Aibreán 1831 [1 April 1831] |quote=Is clos dom gurb í an teanga Ghaeilge is teanga mháthartha i Monserrat san India Thiar ó aimsir Olibher Cromaill, noch do dhíbir cuid de chlanna Gael ó Éirinn gusan Oileán sin Montserrat. Labhartar an Ghaeilge ann go coiteann le daoine dubha agus bána. [I heard that the Irish language is the mother tongue in Montserrat in the West Indies since the time of Oliver Cromwell, who banished some Gaelic Irish families there. Irish speaking is common among both blacks and whites.] |language=Irish}}</ref>

In 1852, Henry H. Breen wrote in [[Notes and Queries]] that "The statement that 'the Irish language is spoken in the West India Islands, and that in some of them it may be said to be almost vernacular,' is true of the little Island of Montserrat, but has no foundation with respect to the other colonies."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0DFmyJVInw8C&pg=PA256|title=Notes and Queries: A Medium of Inter-Communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, Etc|date=15 July 1852|publisher=Bell|via=Google Books|access-date=20 September 2020|archive-date=3 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003185126/https://books.google.com/books?id=0DFmyJVInw8C&pg=PA256#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1902, ''[[The Irish Times]]'' quoted the ''Montreal Family Herald'' in a description of Montserrat, noting that "the negroes to this day speak the old Irish Gaelic tongue, or English with an Irish brogue. A story is told of a [[Connaught]] man who, on arriving at the island, was, to his astonishment, hailed in a vernacular Irish by the black people."<ref>''[[The Irish Times]]'' (Monday, 8 September 1902), page 5.</ref>

A letter by [[William Butler (British Army officer)|W. F. Butler]] in ''[[The Athenaeum (British magazine)|The Atheneum]]'' (15 July 1905) quotes an account by a [[Cork (city)|Cork]] civil servant, C. Cremen, of what he had heard from a retired sailor called John O'Donovan, a fluent Irish speaker:

{{blockquote|He frequently told me that in the year 1852, when mate of the brig Kaloolah, he went ashore on the island of Montserrat which was then out of the usual track of shipping. He said he was much surprised to hear the negroes actually talking Irish among themselves, and that he joined in the conversation...<ref name="De Bhaldraithe"/>}}

The British [[Phonetics|phonetician]] [[John C. Wells]] conducted research into speech in Montserrat in 1977&ndash;78 (which included also Montserratians resident in London).<ref name=Wells>{{cite journal |last1=Wells |first1=John C. |year=1980 |title=The brogue that isn't |url=http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/brogue.htm |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |volume=10 |issue=1–2 |pages=74–79 |access-date=29 April 2017 |doi=10.1017/s0025100300002115 |s2cid=144941139 |archive-date=16 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230316223516/https://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/brogue.htm |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref> He found media claims that Irish speech, whether [[Anglo-Irish]] or [[Irish Gaelic]], influenced contemporary Montserratian speech were largely exaggerated.<ref name=Wells/> He found little in phonology, morphology or syntax that could be attributed to Irish influence, and in Wells' report, only a small number of Irish words in use, one example being ''minseach'' {{IPA|[ˈmʲiɲʃəx]}} which he suggests is the noun ''goat''.<ref name=Wells/>

=== Religion ===
In 2001, the CIA estimated the primary religion as Protestant (67.1%, including [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] 21.8%, Methodist 17%, Pentecostal 14.1%, Seventh-day Adventist 10.5%, and Church of God 3.7%), with Catholics constituting 11.6%, Rastafarian 1.4%, other 6.5%, none 2.6%, unspecified 10.8%.<ref name="cia.gov" /> By 2018, the statistics were Protestant 71.4% (includes Anglican 17.7%, Pentecostal/Full Gospel 16.1%, Seventh Day Adventist 15%, Methodist 13.9%, Church of God 6.7%, other Protestant 2%), Roman Catholic 11.4%, Rastafarian 1.4%, Hindu 1.2%, Jehovah's Witness 1%, Muslim 0.4%, unspecified 5.1%, none 7.9% (2018 est.)<ref name=":4">{{Citation |title=Montserrat |date=2024-09-10 |work=The World Factbook |url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/montserrat/ |access-date=2024-09-17 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}}</ref>

=== Ethnic groups ===
Residents of Montserrat are known as Montserratians. The population is predominantly, but not exclusively, of mixed African-Irish descent.<ref name="freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com">{{cite web |url=http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dgarvey/Garvey_us_census/Montserrat.html |title=How Irish is Montserrat? (The Black Irish) |first=Brian |last=McGinn |website=[[RootsWeb.com]] |access-date=5 April 2014 |archive-date=9 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230709220425/http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~dgarvey/Garvey_us_census/Montserrat.html |url-status=live }}</ref> It is not known with certainty how many African slaves and indentured Irish labourers were brought to the West Indies, though according to one estimate some 60,000 Irish were "Barbadosed" by [[Oliver Cromwell]],<ref name="yale.edu">{{cite web |url=http://www.yale.edu/glc/tangledroots/Barbadosed.htm |title=Barbadosed: Africans and Irish in Barbados |website=Tangled Roots |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208021534/http://www.yale.edu/glc/tangledroots/Barbadosed.htm |archive-date=8 December 2014}}</ref> some of whom would have arrived in Montserrat.

Data published by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] indicates the ethnic group mix as follows (2011 est.):<ref name="cia.gov"/>

:88.4%: African/black 
:{{0}}3.7%: mixed 
:{{0}}3.0%: Hispanic/Spanish (of any race, including white)
:{{0}}2.7%: non-Hispanic Caucasian/white 
:{{0}}1.5%: [[Indo-Caribbean|East Indian/Indian]]
:{{0}}0.7%: other
As of 2018 the statistics were estimated at:<ref name=":4" />

* African/Black 86.2%, 
* mixed 4.8%
* Hispanic/Spanish 3%
* Caucasian/White 2.7%
* East Indian/Indian 1.6%
* other 1.8%