evidence: In the century before the Great Famine of the 1840s Ireland had one of the fastest-growing populations in Europe. In the century after, Ireland was the only European country to decrease in population in every decade. Therein lies the drama of Irish population change. Explaining these great swings in Irish population is no easy task. Interactions between the Irish and international economies are relevant, as are changes within Irish society itself. In the 1740s Ireland was a thinly populated island, in the process of recovering from the devastating famine of 1740 through 1741. The dominant economic sector was agriculture. Ireland's mild, damp climate naturally predisposed its inhabitants toward livestock farming rather than tillage. The former tended to use more land and less labor per unit of output as compared with the production of cereal or root crops, and hence was more consistent with a low population density.